05-01-2012, 05:20 PM

Hello Fellow Mac Users...

I have a G5 Mac 2.7 PPC (OSX 10.5.8). And a couple of Ext. Hard drives.

My Book Essential (3 TB) was formatted by me: Mac Os Extended (Journaled) and happy with it for almost 6 months now. I have about 1TB left but I can't "search" for files using the SPOTLIGHT within FINDER. (yes, even when I clicked on "My Book 1" next to This Mac)...

I checked everything under the DISK UTILITY and even clicked on VERIFY. No issues whatsoever. It checked for:

• Journaled HFS Plus Volume
• Extensts Overflow file
• Catalog File
• Multi-linked Files
• Catalog Hierarchy
• Extended Attributes File
• Multi-Linked Directories
• Volume Bitmap
• Volume Information

And everything is fine...under the INFO button (within the DISK UTILITY) I clicked on the INFO button and all of these info came out fine:

Name : My Book 1
Type : Volume

Disk Identifier : disk2s3
Mount Point : /Volumes/My Book 1
File System : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Connection Bus : USB
Writable : Yes
Universal Unique Identifier : 75471D4A-0A40-3D56-87A2-C60FD8396A3E
Capacity : 2.7 TB (3,000,424,431,616 Bytes)
Free Space : 1.1 TB (1,177,219,317,760 Bytes)
Used : 1.7 TB (1,823,205,113,856 Bytes)
Number of Files : 880,511
Number of Folders : 176,134
Owners Enabled : Yes
Can Turn Owners Off : Yes
Can Repair Permissions : No
Can Be Verified : Yes
Can Be Repaired : Yes
Can Be Formatted : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Supports Journaling : Yes
Journaled : Yes
Disk Number : 2
Partition Number : 3

On my old LACIE ext. Hard Drive formatted the same way, I have no problems with it in terms of searching. How come I can't search of anything?

Is there a way to Index it? How do I fix this drive? I am tired of going through the folders and clicking on the specific file.

Thank you very much and I appreciate your help! Please respond or email me via this site.

Warmest regards,
Fabie tai chi

05-01-2012, 05:39 PM

Is it possible you can dump the contents of the drive to somewhere else, reformat the drive, and then re-populate the drive? That might solve the issue right then and there.

Maybe repairing permissions?

05-01-2012, 06:52 PM

Try forcing Spotlight to reindex the drive. Remove it from the Spotlight list, so Spotlight isn't set to search it. Logout/in then add it back to the search list.

05-01-2012, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by dauber

Is it possible you can dump the contents of the drive to somewhere else, reformat the drive, and then re-populate the drive? That might solve the issue right then and there.

Maybe repairing permissions?

Hello dauber....thanks for your quick response. Unfortunately no, I don't have any extra hard drive to dump it's contents and moving it temporarily to 'repopulate' it with the "repairing permissions" set up.

I wish I have an extra drive....but that sounds like a great idea.

05-01-2012, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by Stretch

Try forcing Spotlight to reindex the drive. Remove it from the Spotlight list, so Spotlight isn't set to search it. Logout/in then add it back to the search list.

Hello Stretch,

Thanks also for your comments. How would I remove my drive from the list? Just log out and log in? I will see what I can do by playing around spotlight parameters.....thanks again, hopefully I can find it.

05-01-2012, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by fabie tai chi

Hello Stretch,

Thanks also for your comments. How would I remove my drive from the list? Just log out and log in? I will see what I can do by playing around spotlight parameters.....thanks again, hopefully I can find it.

Add the drive to the Privacy list. Log out, back in, then remove it from the privacy list.

05-01-2012, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by Stretch

Add the drive to the Privacy list. Log out, back in, then remove it from the privacy list.

Did those exactly, it didn't work. <sigh> I think dauber's suggestion may work but that's the thing, I don't have any other ext hd that big to temporarily move files.

I've searched all over the internet and couldn't find anything about it. I knew from the get go that when I first bought this ext hd, that if I formatted it as Journaled - Mac OS extended there wouldn't have any issues regarding indexes.

I mean the ext hd is functioning properly...just that SPOTLIGHT can't search anything in that drive while my older LACIE ext hd....no problem really.

05-01-2012, 08:50 PM

I came across this from the internet:

Spotlight tips



There are two approaches to rebuilding the Spotlight indices on a given volume:

Via Privacy: Add, then remove, the volume whose Spotlight indices you wish to rebuild to the System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab (hereafter abbreviated as "Privacy"). See the AppleCare Knowledge Base document "Spotlight: How to re-index files and folders."
Via Terminal: Assuming indexing is enabled on the volume in question:
1.
Open Terminal, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
2.
At the Terminal prompt, type the following command:

sudo mdutil -E /path_to_volume
where /path_to_volume is the path of the volume whose Spotlight indices you wish to rebuild. [1]

For example, to rebuild the Spotlight indices for your Mac OS X startup disk, the command is:

sudo mdutil -E /
3. Press Return. You will receive a confirmation message based on the version of Mac OS X you are using:
Mac OS X Confirmation Message
10.5 and later Indexing enabled.
10.4 Volume index removed.
Indexing will begin shortly thereafter.
4. At the Terminal prompt, type exit and press Return.
5. Quit (Command-Q) Terminal.

I've never really used the TERMINAL previously and when I tried to open the terminal and type the first command line, it gave me a warning:


WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.


I stopped for the fear of accidentally wiping out my ext hd....any help one can extend before I try these? I don't know how to use this terminal....


Does this mean I should type: sudo mdutil -E /My Book 1

Is this correct? Would this just re-index MY BOOK 1 and not affect my files? I'm nervous about this....
Thanks again....