Search of my Mac shows unwanted results from a back-up drive

[pine man]

I use a Thunderbolt drive, permanently connected to my Mac, to carry out CCC back-ups on a daily basis.

Just recently I deleted an app and having done so did a search of my Mac to see if any bits & pieces had been left behind. I found absolutely loads! I then realised that they were in fact files/folders contained in the _CCC Safety Net folder on my Thunderbolt drive.

I opened Finder and made sure that I only selected 'Mackintosh HD' to carry out the same search, but it still showed backed up files on my Thunderbolt drive.

This prompts two questions. 1. Is this what should happen, in that any search of my Mac should include the Thunderbolt drive? 2. Is there a way to search my Mac without including results from the Thunderbolt drive?

There is a third question and it is that - am I doing something really silly and missing the obvious?

 

[IWT]

Hi pine man.

To sort things out for you, try this:

Open System Preferences, then click on Spotlight.

When the Spotlight window opens, Click on Privacy.

Your Thunderbolt CCC Drive should be shown under Privacy - meaning that it is excluded from any Search.

If it's not there, then locate the CCC Drive icon (probably on your Desktop or in Finder Sidebar) and left click/drag the icon into the Privacy Window.

Any Drive you want excluded from a Spotlight Search should be dragged into the Privacy window. So, if you occasionally mount other drives, they will need to be dragged into Privacy if you don't want them searched.

Ian

 

[pine man]

Absolutely brilliant!!

Worked a treat thanks a lot.

 

[IWT]

My pleasure.

Ian

 

[toMACsh]

thanks a lot.

+1

Sounded like something I'd want, even though I don't use Spotlight that much. Maybe this will slightly improve its abysmal performance.