Question

Can one index a collection of removable media (CD-ROMs, DVDs, Memory Sticks, ... and how would that actually work?

Answer 1

You can index removable media but for the search to work properly the content that was indexed needs to be available in the original location during the search. If the original content is not available then the files would still appear in the File List but the Hits would not appear, instead it would say "Unable to display hits'.

The original content also needs to be mounted with the same drive letter when re-attached, ie if it was indexed as 'H:' drive then it needs to be connected as 'H:' drive when searching.

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More information

When you search an index the search works in two steps. Step 1 looks in the index to find all files that match the search terms. Step 2 loads the text from the original source to display the Hits or Text for the found files.

Indexed content - The content that was originally indexed
Index store - The information that was extracted from the content and stored in the index

Comments

If, for example, I index 5 CDs with the indexed content saved on a LOCAL hard disk, the searching of that index of 5 CDs would work? What do you mean by "indexed content", the actual data or simply the extracted data of the index?

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I've re-worked the answer, which hopefully clarifies the answer for your question. In short... the search would find the files but the Hits and Text would not be displayed unless the CD was actually loaded. I think the Index option you want is something like: 'Store file text for offline access'.

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To tickle out further details: Let's assume 5 CDs, each with an Outlook PST file. I would build an index for each of the 5 CDs.

Now, the CD drive does not contain any CDs. If I search the 5 indices for mails to a specific recipient, FileLocator Pro would show the found e-mails in the left pane but nothing in the right panes "Hits", "Text", "Preview", ...?

To get the latter information, I would need to see in the "Source" field listing in the left pane which CD is refers to to and insert it in the CD drive?

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Yes. The emails would appear but nothing would show in the Contents View.