Searching for Files

This is interesting: I copied Word 2004 files from an old machine to a new one.
When performing a search, none of those files come up, even though I know they are there.
They only show up in Sherlock if I do some work in the files & resave it.
I'm running 10.4.9 with Office 2004.
The searches are done from Computer and Home.
Just wondering if anyone has had this problem.

It may be that the system has not had time to index the new files - after the maintenance scripts have been run, they should show.

I assume they're being copied to a journaled HFS drive?

Yes, they have been copied to a journaled HFS drive.
The files have been on this machine for months, so I assume they've been indexed. I could be wrong. If I copy something new over (from a file server), Sherlock will find it right away...or if I update one of the "bad" files & Save As, it will find it also