Spotlight index unreliable on removable volumes

I have a removable drive that I want to index with Spotlight. As long as the drive is connected, Spotlight indexes the drive correctly.
If I unmounted the drive, disconnected it, and reconnected it, Spotlight will not "see" the index in that volume any more--none of the hits in that volume will be returned by the Spotlight search.
AFAIK the hidden Spotlight folders (.DS_Store and .Spotlight-V100) still exist on the volume. It's just that Spotlight does not reintegrate the index into its master index.
I can fix the problem by either going to System Preferences, and adding the volume to the Privacy list, then removing it; or by using the CLI command sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Name followed by sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/Name (which does the same thing).
Is this a known bug? Is there a workaround?

Dave Rahardja wrote:
I have a removable drive that I want to index with Spotlight. As long as the drive is connected, Spotlight indexes the drive correctly.
If I unmounted the drive, disconnected it, and reconnected it, Spotlight will not "see" the index in that volume any more--none of the hits in that volume will be returned by the Spotlight search.
AFAIK the hidden Spotlight folders (.DS_Store and .Spotlight-V100) still exist on the volume. It's just that Spotlight does not reintegrate the index into its master index.
I can fix the problem by either going to System Preferences, and adding the volume to the Privacy list, then removing it; or by using the CLI command sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Name followed by sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/Name (which does the same thing).
Is this a known bug? Is there a workaround?
That could be a bug. You might file a bug report with Apple about it. If others have same issue they will let you know.
File here:
https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/RadarWeb.woa/wa/signIn
If you reconnect the external drive and then reboot, does Spotlight pick it back up?
If so, what happens if you simply reconnect the drive and logoff and back on?
Spotlight is supposed to automatically access any attached drive not in the exclude list.

Similar Messages

Spotlight indexing of Time Capsule - feature or bug?

I understand why backups are indexed: the ability to use Spotlight from within Time Machine is a fantastic feature. But the method by which this index is created does not make sense where a Time Capsule is in use (or indeed most networked storage, but since many configurations are officially unsupported let's just keep this discussion focused on the officially approved one!).
Typically (from my sample size of 1), a complete system backup is of the order of 100GB; however, after the initial backup is complete, Time Machine only needs to copy modified files to the backup drive, which can lead to very small and fast subsequent backups: unchanged files are created in-situ with a hardlink to the existing copy on the backup drive.
A problem arises when, after a backup completes, Spotlight attempts to index the changes to the backup drive: it appears that it inspects every unindexed file (involves transfer to the local machine) including such unmodified/hardlinked files. This therefore gives rise to a situation where a backup that writes only a few kilobytes to the backup drive results in Spotlight reading hundreds of gigabytes from that drive.
Even with a throughput of 100Mbps, this would take close to an hour and a half (in reality, especially over wireless networks, it takes many hours); meanwhile Time Machine reaches its next scheduled backup and cannot proceed until Spotlight has finished indexing.
Altogether, this appears to render Time Capsules useless for system backup (unless one is connected via gigabit ethernet, which is neither a requisite nor a desirable constraint). One does not need to look far to see how many users this issue is affecting.
In previous versions of OS X, one could workaround this issue by disabling Spotlight indexing of the backup volume; however, since Lion (or Snow Leopard?), this is no longer possible.
To my mind, the design is flawed - some might call it a "bug": there should be a more efficient method of indexing drives, especially networked ones (ideally avoiding the redundancy of reindexing hardlinked files). At worst, Time Machine could provide to Spotlight all the metadata it requires for the entire backup: thus avoiding the need for Spotlight to read such files from the backup volume.
...or have I misunderstood something?

nickety wrote:
I understand why backups are indexed: the ability to use Spotlight from within Time Machine is a fantastic feature.
That's not the reason; Time Machine requires the indexing in order to work, especially for the "Star Wars" display.
Altogether, this appears to render Time Capsules useless for system backup
That's not normal; you have something else wrong, possibly a corrupt index. See the pink box in #D2 of Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
In previous versions of OS X, one could workaround this issue by disabling Spotlight indexing of the backup volume
Not really. The backups were still indexed; you just didn't get a message. See the note in item 2 here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8991.html

Prevent automatic removal of the Spotlight index due to low disk space

I am guessing that when disk space runs low, it automatically deletes the Spotlight index to make room for virtual memory. Then when space becomes available it reindexes. But I'm not sure about that.
Since my MacBook Air SSD is only 128 GB, I often work with little free disk space and the re-indexing drives me crazy.
I tried to disable Spotlight, remove its index and reindex. Also check filesystem and repair permissions. In diagnostic reports (~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/) nothing about reindexing is mentioned.
You can say that I should control the amount of free space but also should be another way. Disabling Spotlight isn't the option.
Crosspost: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/37321/prevent-automatic-removal-of-the- spotlight-index-due-to-low-disk-space

You can say that I should control the amount of free space .....
Then I will
See if you have Time Machine Local Backups taking up space, and turn it off with:
sudo tmutil disablelocal
Also consider turning off hibernate mode
I am guessing that when disk space runs low, it automatically deletes the Spotlight index to make room for virtual memory. Then when space becomes available it reindexes. But I'm not sure about that.
Not sure if that's the case, but low disk space can be causing issues. What % of your HD is free?

Must the Time Machine volume be Spotlight indexed?

There are conflicting forum posts on this issue. Some say Time Machine requires that the Time Machine backup volume be included in the Spotlight indexing prefs. Some say TM works fine when excluded from Spotlight indexing.
I've also not found a definitive answer by searching Support.
Any advice would be appreciated!

I'm happy to find this thread, because for a few weeks I (and others in various threads) have been experiencing a bug where Spotlight continuously indexes *_for days and weeks on end._*
Thanks to this thread, I now believe that the root of this issue is that for some reason, Spotlight has started to index my Time Machine drive. I'm glad to read, here, that it's not necessary for Spotlight to index one's TM drive. However, what was not mentioned here is exactly how one excludes the TM drive from being indexed!
When I attempt to do so via Spotlight's preference pane (in the "Privacy" tab), I get an error saying the drive "couldn't be added."
UPDATE: Before posting this I tried dragging the TM drive's icon to the Spotlight preference pane, and that worked. Technically there's no difference between doing it that way or clicking the "plus" sign and navigating to the drive to be excluded, so I'm not sure why that didn't work. But I'm just reporting my experience. Hopefully this will solve my never-ending spotlight-indexing problem.
UPDATE #2: Problem not solved. Spotlight is still indexing the TM drive. Apparently, adding that drive to the the Privacy pane only affects search results, not indexing.
_How does one prevent a drive from being indexed?_

Is the spotlight index stored on the boot drive or individual volumes?

Hello!
My questions are pretty simple, and are sumarized here (from the block of text below):
First, if I have several external hard drives, is the Spotlight index file for each drive stored on the external hard drive, or on OS X's boot drive?
Secondly, if it's stored on the boot drive, can I copy these files to another Tiger-running Mac to eliminate the need to re-index the hard drives? Where do I find them?
Third: Leopard's Spotlight has quite a few new features. Even if the Tiger index files are stored on the external drive, will it need to re-index the drive to support the new feature set?
Now for the long explenation:
I have been preparing to upgrade my Powerbook to Leopard within the next month or two, and as such, I bought a new hard drive to dedicate one of my old drives to Leopard and Time Machine. Because I have three extrernal hard drives, I needed to move about 500 GB of data between the thee drives to make room for what was on the now-dedicated drive. Of course, this requires that Spotlight re-index the "new" drives.
Today, I left all of the drives attached to my old G4, running Tiger, while it sits there indexing the three drives, totaling around a terrabyte of external storage. Because Spotlight tends to hog all of the available CPU time, and the G4 should be done indexing the drives, it would save me a lot of time if I could copy the index files over from the G4 to my Powerbook to avoid indexing them all over again. That is, if the index files are not on the external drives already. If they are on the G4's boot drive, where do I find these files?
Finally, I plan to reformat the internal hard drive of my Powerbook when I install Leopard - I make a habit of doing a fresh install for every major upgrade (eg, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, etc). To estimate the amount of time needed to upgrade, I'd be nice to know if Leopard will need to re-index the files on the external drives - even if Tiger's spotlight index is stored on the externals - for Leopard's new Spotlight features. Will it need to re-index? I would assume that until Leopard arrives, most people wouldn't know this, of course.
Thanks a bunch,
-Dan

Each drive's Spotlight index is located on that drive.
(25154)

Lost the ability to Spotlight Index my Time Machine drive

I have an external, Firewire Time Machine drive which has been working without problems up to now. This evening I had a backup which hung up in the "preparing" stage (no file transfers begun yet). When I went to look in the console, there was a device error apparently related to trying to detect the powered-on state of my Time Machine drive. Apparently Time Machine did not handle this gracefully. In the course of trying to clear that I got into a state where I had to force shutdown of the system (holding the power button). (I accidentally clicked on the Time Machine icon which got hung up trying to display the histories, and left me with no access to the Desktop....)
Things appeared to check out fine when I brought the machine back up (including Verify Disk of both the main and Time Machine drives and Repair Permissions of the main drive), and I finally did a Back Up Now in Time Machine. Due to the forced shut down, this became a "Deep Traversal" "preparing"stage. We'll I've seen those before, so no worries. However it lasted quite a bit longer than it should, at which point I noticed that Spotlight was indexing the Time Machine drive.
So at this point I dragged the Time Machine into the Spotlight Privacy list. Rather than going away completely as I expected, the indexing of the Time Machine drive apparently went into some sort of clean-up phase that said it was still indexing for another 5 minutes (where it had, just prior, said it was going to be indexing for another 2 hours). The progress bar advanced normally as if it really did do 5 minutes more of indexing of the Time Machine drive. I've not seen this before
When that finished, the backup which had been "preparing" during all of this also finished "preparing", transferred the several MB of files I expected, and finished normally. There were no errors in the console related to any of this.
I rebooted, and once again did a pair of Disk Verifies and a Repair Permissions without problems. Opened up the console to track things, and poked around in the Time Machine. All was normal as far as I can tell. I also explored the Time Machine drive via the Finder. No problems.
So I now went into Spotlight Privacy and removed the Time Machine drive from the privacy list expecting it to do the re-indexing I had stopped above. Spotlight started indexing the drive and a couple seconds later it stopped. I tried again -- into and out of privacy -- same result, a couple seconds of indexing and then it stopped.
At this point I noticed the console was saying I had some bus errors in the I/O system, and that's what was terminating the md worker process and stopping the indexing.
So I shut down, unplugged the Time Machine drive, and went through my maintenance ritual.
I reset the PMU (this is a powerbook), reset PRAM, booted once in Safe Mode, booted normally, and ran Disk Utility again to Verify and Repair Permissions on the main hard drive. All of that went without a hitch. No failures, faults or funnies.
I ran through the list of Applications I use, keeping an eye on the console. Again no problems.
So I shut down, plugged the Time Machine drive back in and booted back up. I put the drive into Spotlight Privacy and turned off Time Machine backups. I then did a Verify Disk on that drive. No problems. I went into the Time Machine history display. No problems. And no problems looking at it in the Finder either. In particular, no bus errors or anything else funny in the console.
I rebooted and did a new Back Up Now. It completed without problems. It was another Deep Traversal backup due to the Safe Mode Boot, but it went without a hitch. I rebooted and did another Back Up Now and got a normal speed incremental backup again without a hitch. The bottom line is that as far as I can see that Time Machine drive is working just fine.
So I went into Spotlight Privacy and removed it from the list. Once again it started to index and stopped in a couple seconds. But this time there were NO Console error messages.
I moved my main hard drive into Spotlight Privacy and removed it and it re-indexed from scratch just fine. Tried again with the Time Machine drive -- indexing stopped in a couple of seconds with no message in the Console. Spotlight searches find all the right stuff in the main drive. Spotlight and finder searches find only the top level Time Machine folders in the Time Machine drive.
I also tried removing the Spotlight plist from my account's Library / Preferences. Spotlight created a new plist as expected but it still won't index that darned Time Machine drive.
Apparently there is something left over from when I originally aborted the Spotlight indexing of that drive which is causing Spotlight to think it has no work to do. I'm not seeing any I/O errors of any sort any more (I think my maintenance pass took care of that) and Time Machine backups and history access continue to work just fine. And again, the Time Machine disk Verifies just fine.
So I've run out of things to try.
Is there a hidden file that I need to remove from that drive so that Spotlight no longer thinks it already has it indexed?
--Bob

Well unfortunately the command
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/MyDiskName
didn't help.
The command itself echoed the name of the volume and then said "Indexing Enabled", which looked good. But the Spotlight indexing stopped after a couple seconds. The Console reported the Terminal sudo command and nothing else.
I tried moving the Time Machine drive in and out of Spotlight privacy and once again the indexing started and stopped a couple seconds later with no Console messages.
I then tried another trick I've learned to make Spotlight indexing happen which is to do a Finder search for, say, all folders (limited to the one drive) via Command-f and while Including both System Files and files both Visible and Invisible. And indeed Spotlight indexing started but again stopped a few seconds later.
However, this time there were console messages and a crash report.
The Console shows (with personal information x'ed out):
12/31/07 1:30:38 PM mds[28] (/)(Error) IndexCI in openindex_filelazy:open file error: 2, 0.indexGroups
12/31/07 1:30:41 PM ReportCrash[146] Formulating crash report for process mds[28]
12/31/07 1:30:42 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.metadata.mds[28]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
12/31/07 1:30:42 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10ba40.mdworker[96]) Exited: Terminated
12/31/07 1:30:42 PM com.apple.launchd[1] (0x1004a0.mdworker[108]) Exited: Terminated
12/31/07 1:30:42 PM mds[147] (/Volumes/Xxxxxx Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/80F3EC85-D77A-49FE-8BDC-BB7C3B3EC1CF)(E rror) IndexCI in ContentIndexOpenBulk:Unclean shutdown of /Volumes/Xxxxxx Time Machine/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/80F3EC85-D77A-49FE-8BDC-BB7C3B3EC1CF/0. ; needs recovery
12/31/07 1:30:43 PM ReportCrash[146] Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mds2007-12-31-133038Xxxxxx-Xxxxxx-Computer.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
The Crash Report reads as follows (again with personal information x'ed out):
Process: mds [28]
Path: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Support/mds
Identifier: mds
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: PPC (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]
Date/Time: 2007-12-31 13:30:38.746 -0500
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.1 (9B18)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000030
Crashed Thread: 15
Thread 0:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0000cfa0 0x1000 + 49056
5 mds 0x00005580 0x1000 + 17792
Thread 1:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 2:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 3:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 4:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 5:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 6:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda3ec _semwaitsignal + 12
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f16fa0 pthread_condwait + 1580
2 mds 0x00009648 0x1000 + 34376
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 7:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ee0ea0 read$UNIX2003 + 12
1 mds 0x000091b4 0x1000 + 33204
Thread 8:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15438 kevent + 12
1 mds 0x0007e584 0x1000 + 513412
Thread 9:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 10:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 11:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 12:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 13:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00207f0c _handleExceptions + 208
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 14:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92ed39d8 machmsgtrap + 8
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92eda8fc mach_msg + 56
2 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x90214664 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1828
3 mds 0x00059ab8 0x1000 + 363192
4 mds 0x0005987c 0x1000 + 362620
5 com.apple.Foundation 0x969c5d9c _NSThread__main_ + 1004
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 15 Crashed:
0 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x002046cc ContentIndexContainsContentByDocId + 204
1 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00164358 QueryFunctionCallbackContext::findContent(db_obj*, __CFString const*, char*, int) + 244
2 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x001634d0 qpContentIndexMatch(datastoreinfo*, dblazyobj*, query_piece*, void*, int) + 328
3 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x0015587c comparefile_againsttree + 828
4 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00155d30 comparefile_againsttree + 2032
5 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00155d5c comparefile_againsttree + 2076
6 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x001e307c -[SISearchCtx isObjectInQuery:withQuery:shortcut:] + 144
7 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x001fa268 -[SISearchCtx_FSWalk performSearch:] + 996
8 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x001e2cbc -[SISearchCtx executeSearchContextCracked_2:jobNum:] + 136
9 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00177e80 siwork_queueprocess + 752
10 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x0017811c sischeduleronce + 356
11 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x0017816c sischeduleronce + 436
12 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x001784f8 sischeduler_run_waitingtimeout + 640
13 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x0016529c runLoop + 72
14 com.apple.spotlight.index 0x00165308 query_runLoop + 32
15 libSystem.B.dylib 0x92f15bf8 pthreadstart + 316
Thread 15 crashed with PPC Thread State 32:
srr0: 0x002046cc srr1: 0x0200f030 dar: 0x00000030 dsisr: 0x40000000
r0: 0x002046a4 r1: 0xf09a4380 r2: 0x00000000 r3: 0x00000000
r4: 0xf09a43c0 r5: 0x00000000 r6: 0x000074d1 r7: 0x00000000
r8: 0x003fc080 r9: 0x00000000 r10: 0x00000000 r11: 0x44000444
r12: 0x92ede094 r13: 0x00000000 r14: 0x00000000 r15: 0x00373410
r16: 0x00000000 r17: 0x00239e98 r18: 0x00000001 r19: 0x00227b9c
r20: 0x00000000 r21: 0x00245554 r22: 0x00000001 r23: 0x00000001
r24: 0x00000000 r25: 0x00000005 r26: 0x00000000 r27: 0x00000000
r28: 0x00000000 r29: 0x00000005 r30: 0xf09a43c0 r31: 0x00204610
cr: 0x24000444 xer: 0x20000004 lr: 0x002046a4 ctr: 0x92ede094
vrsave: 0x00000000
Binary Images:
0x1000 - 0xc1ffb mds ??? (???) <af9cc958b4b030835101ff024186c7d3> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Support/mds
0xde000 - 0xe0ffd com.apple.MDSChannel 1.0 (1.0) /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MDSChannel.framework/Versions/A/MDSChannel
0x139000 - 0x23fffb com.apple.spotlight.index 10.5.0 (398.1) <5843125c709dd85f22f9bd42744beea5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpotlightIndex.framework/Versions/A/Spotlight Index
0x1ca9000 - 0x1caaffc liblangid.dylib ??? (???) <5f078ac1f623f5ce432ea53fc29338c0> /usr/lib/liblangid.dylib
0x2198000 - 0x22bdffb libmecab.1.0.0.dylib ??? (???) <cd875e74974e4ec3a0b13eeeb236fa53> /usr/lib/libmecab.1.0.0.dylib
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe309d3 dyld 95.3 (???) <a7be977c203ec5c76b2f25a7aef66554> /usr/lib/dyld
0x90123000 - 0x9016effb com.apple.Metadata 10.5.0 (398) <b6bb1fd5a7a9135f546b2d8cbd65eafc> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadat a.framework/Versions/A/Metadata
0x901ab000 - 0x902d0ff3 com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.5 (476) <9073c2bfdf6842562c8b7f0308109c02> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
0x9060a000 - 0x90612fff libbsm.dylib ??? (???) <c1fca3cbe3b1c21e9b31bc89b920f34c> /usr/lib/libbsm.dylib
0x90683000 - 0x90688ff6 libmathCommon.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib
0x90757000 - 0x907d2fff com.apple.SearchKit 1.2.0 (1.2.0) <1b448fbae02460eae76ee1c6883f45d6> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SearchK it.framework/Versions/A/SearchKit
0x9088a000 - 0x9090ffff libsqlite3.0.dylib ??? (???) <7b379cb4220346e99c32c427d4539496> /usr/lib/libsqlite3.0.dylib
0x90aa7000 - 0x90ab5fff libz.1.dylib ??? (???) <1a70dd3594a8c5ad39d785af5da23237> /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib
0x90b50000 - 0x90be2fff com.apple.framework.IOKit 1.5.1 (???) <591b8b0cc4261db98a6e72e38eef5f9a> /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit
0x91105000 - 0x9116cffb libstdc++.6.dylib ??? (???) <a4e9b10268b3ffac26d0296499b24e8e> /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib
0x9116d000 - 0x912b5ff3 libicucore.A.dylib ??? (???) <250daed2fb2e6bf114480e2e4da0728b> /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib
0x91c3c000 - 0x91d32ffc libiconv.2.dylib ??? (???) <05ae1fcc97404173b2f9caef8f8be797> /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
0x91d3a000 - 0x91db4ffd com.apple.CFNetwork 220 (221) <00b882d3d3325526b78ded74880759fe> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CFNetwo rk.framework/Versions/A/CFNetwork
0x9236a000 - 0x92382ffb com.apple.DictionaryServices 1.0.0 (1.0.0) <fe37191e732eeb66189185cd000a210b> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Diction aryServices.framework/Versions/A/DictionaryServices
0x92383000 - 0x9238effb libgcc_s.1.dylib ??? (???) <ea47fd375407f162c76d14d64ba246cd> /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib
0x92742000 - 0x92769fff libxslt.1.dylib ??? (???) <3700d04090629deddb436aa2d516c56d> /usr/lib/libxslt.1.dylib
0x92777000 - 0x92860fff libxml2.2.dylib ??? (???) <6f383df1e1e775be0158ba947784ae13> /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib
0x928aa000 - 0x928b9fff com.apple.DSObjCWrappers.Framework 1.2 (1.2) <2411674c821a8907449ac741ce6a40c3> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DSObjCWrappers.framework/Versions/A/DSObjCWra ppers
0x92a17000 - 0x92afafeb libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) <4a90e315bd1718c3f5ae09ee6c23e36c> /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
0x92afb000 - 0x92bc9ff7 com.apple.CoreServices.OSServices 210.2 (210.2) <bad4943629f870d305f2bc7c6dfffe2d> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/OSServi ces.framework/Versions/A/OSServices
0x92bde000 - 0x92dbfffb com.apple.security 5.0.1 (32736) <15632bf9bbdb223194b3d79a2e48e02d> /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Versions/A/Security
0x92e9a000 - 0x92ec5ff7 libauto.dylib ??? (???) <c1f2bd227817ad7c7bf29ec74729ac7c> /usr/lib/libauto.dylib
0x92ed2000 - 0x9306bfe3 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <8a6cd873dfa7ada786efac188f95ed1b> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x931a7000 - 0x934a7ff3 com.apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 783 (783) <fd2acaf23e95472f78b8a077fa039986> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonC ore.framework/Versions/A/CarbonCore
0x946f2000 - 0x9472afff com.apple.SystemConfiguration 1.9.0 (1.9.0) <d925dde7699e6231c88a41b0254a7591> /System/Library/Frameworks/SystemConfiguration.framework/Versions/A/SystemConfi guration
0x94933000 - 0x9494eff3 com.apple.DirectoryService.Framework 3.5 (3.5) <3246a5d1c6a3d678798a90e8c5cd3677> /System/Library/Frameworks/DirectoryService.framework/Versions/A/DirectoryServi ce
0x9494f000 - 0x9494fffa com.apple.CoreServices 32 (32) <42b6dda539f7411606187335d9eae0c5> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/CoreServices
0x94c68000 - 0x94c9dfff com.apple.AE 402 (402) <a4b92c8ac89cc774b85fb44c48b9d882> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/AE.fram ework/Versions/A/AE
0x96831000 - 0x9683afff com.apple.DiskArbitration 2.2 (2.2) <9c8f8ade43fa25b32109ef9dcc0cb5d5> /System/Library/Frameworks/DiskArbitration.framework/Versions/A/DiskArbitration
0x9683b000 - 0x968d1ff7 com.apple.LaunchServices 286 (286) <a3a0b2af862e9a8945072f8cb523678f> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchS ervices.framework/Versions/A/LaunchServices
0x969bc000 - 0x96c00ffb com.apple.Foundation 6.5.1 (677.1) <4152239382fb0f48abbcbf35bd04afa6> /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation
0xfffec000 - 0xfffeffff libobjc.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
0xffff8000 - 0xffff9703 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
Apparently the mdutil command didn't actually delete the Spotlight index file which is causing the problem, or at least didn't leave the indexing files in a consistent, empty state to start indexing over again. I may have to Erase this Time Machine disk and start over.
I should point out that except for Spotlight indexing this disk is otherwise working just fine. It passes Verify Disk with no errors and both new Time Machine backups and viewing and restoring via Time Machine and Finder work without problem.
Any suggestions before I just Erase the disk and start over with a new backup?
--Bob

How to temporarily turn OFF Spotlight Indexing?

It was suggested to me that it is best to turn off spotlight indexing for the duration of an initial clone backup of your system drive. How can this be done? Thanks.

The advice you have been given is incorrect. There is no need whatsoever to turn Spotlight off even temporarily. Just prior to the cloning you should check that indexing of your boot volume is not occurring - simply because the competition for CPU will slow the cloning down. Just click on the Spotlight symbol at the right hand end of your menubar to see that you only have the text entry box.
Also, there is usually no need to have a clone indexed, and so you should put the target volume into the Privacy tab of System Preference / Spotlight -- that will ensure that your target does not start to be indexed during the cloning and that the target volume does not become indexed later. Should you ever need to work on the clone and want it to be indexed, just remove that volume from 'Privacy'.
Ignoring any references to Carbon Copy Cloner, see http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=14531.
Andreas

Mountain Lion: problem with Time Machine directories and spotlight indexing

I'm using a fresh install of 10.8 Mountain Lion on a 2011 MBP. It's a work laptop with many ASCII files containing numerical data (floating point numbers), with varying file extensions. Some of the files are multi-gig, some are only a few hundred K, and there are tens of thousands of them. Roughly 500G of numerical data.
I can disable spotlight from indexing certain subdirectories of my home directory on the local drive. However, when using Time Machine to backup, I seem to be entirely unable to prevent spotlight from attemping to fully index the external drive (Time Machine volume). I actually let spotlight run for over 36 hours this weekend in a futile attempt for it to finish indexing the TM volume. The /.Spotlight-V100 index on the external drive is roughly 100G and continuously written and overwritten. /var/log/system.log had various "Merging failed" messages for temp spotlight files. I deleted the index, let spotlight run again overnight, but it did not finish indexing. "sudo fs_usage -f filesys mds mdworker mdimport mdworker32 | grep open" showed spotlight slowly chugging through the thousands of numerical files.
I believe the problem is related to this old report from someone who noticed a leopard -> snow leopard change:
http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=106703
http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6126_102-366184/snow-leopard-10-6-spotlight-indexing -and-disk-usage/
However, I don't see an easy solution. In ML, if you drag the TM volume to the spotlight privacy list it gives you a message about how you can't disable indexing of TM volumes because it's essential for TM. I have not yet tried to manually put in some kind of .metadata_never_index file in the relevant TM volume directories (I am not sure if that will do anything, or perhaps break TM backups), but that's one possible next step.
Anyone have ideas on how I can have my TM backups work but the spotlight indexing of all these data files (their subdirectories) disabled? I'm not specifically TRYING to back up those data files with TM (they're duplicated elsewhere), they're just on the same machine as a bunch of other stuff I need backed up via TM. Apple has a disaster on their hands for anyone trying to backup a machine which also has large data sets.

I'm not aware of any avenue to tell spotlight to not index all or part of a backup.
However, the indexing should work, even if takes a long time.
I don't think this is a new issue and has been part of TM from the start.
Realistically, it may be time to consider whether TM is the best choice for these data files?
Are they very volatile do they change frequently both as to content of individual files and total set of files?
If not, then a clone or syncing type of backup might be better suited for these files.
I do not back up all my files via time machine. I keep photographs and music outside of Time Machine. to be sure they are backed up but via clones.
To show why this might the best take photographs. My photographs are basically immutable once they enter the system, but I may come back with 5000 images from a trip and whittle that down to a few hundred eventually. This would cause a lot of files to be saved in TM that are no longer wanted, - but are not easy to remove formthe backup. while the ones I want haven't changed. TM is not geared to make handling that easily.
As a further aside, ideally one should back everything of value up twice via 2 different means.
I've had backup drives fail.I've had TM logically fail (disk is fine -TM internal data structures bad).

Endless Spotlight indexing

My Mac Pro 8-core has been indexing for the last 3 days or so non-stop. At least every time I go to use it, I get the "Spotlight will be available as soon as the contents of your computer have been indexed." I've never seen indexing take this long before -- in fact I've never even noticed it for more than a minute or three. Anything I can do to abort this index process? -- I have a feeling it's hung somewhere.

Hi gimbo70 & welcome to forums
Go to System Preferences/Spotlight and add your iDisk to the exclusion list/window.
Close prefs, then re-open and remove your iDisk from the exclusion window. This should stop and restart normal indexing on that particular volume.
See these articles/links for more info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22902?viewlocale=en_US
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1635504&tstart=795
http://www.wwco.com/~wls/blog/2007/08/29/rebuilding-spotlights-index-on-os-x-man ually/
If it were me, I wouldn't entertain an indexed iDisk...

Endless spotlight indexing on my idisk

it's about a week that spotlight it's indexing my iDisk.
I have my idisk on the desktop with active syncro so i have a proper copy of the idisk on the desktop.
Using cocktail i erased the index for the main(system) disk and let spotlight indexing it again but it started again with the message "indexing idisk estimated time...".
My i disk its about 800mb and the system disk is 500gb just 4gb full.
thanks for now.

Hi gimbo70 & welcome to forums
Go to System Preferences/Spotlight and add your iDisk to the exclusion list/window.
Close prefs, then re-open and remove your iDisk from the exclusion window. This should stop and restart normal indexing on that particular volume.
See these articles/links for more info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA22902?viewlocale=en_US
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1635504&tstart=795
http://www.wwco.com/~wls/blog/2007/08/29/rebuilding-spotlights-index-on-os-x-man ually/
If it were me, I wouldn't entertain an indexed iDisk...

MDS running when Spotlight indexing is off

Ok. So I have a Mid 2009 MBP running Mavericks.
When I turn indexing on, I get the endless indexing thing others have reported along with the mdsync server launch failure message repeated every 30 seconds in Console.
So, while we wait for a fix from Apple, I turned off Spotlight indexing for all volumes and then used the -a -E Terminal command to erase the indexes.
Is there a reason why the 'mds' process would still run with no indexes and indexing turned off? Sometimes the 'mds' process runs at up to 30-40% of CPU. How is this possible when it has nothing to do since indexes are gone and indexing is off?

Step 1
If you have more than one user account, this step must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender mdworker -o -k Sender mds | grep -v 'boxd\|Norm' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
Step 2
Enter the following command as in Step 1 and post the output:
mdutil -as | open -ef
You can then quit Terminal.
Step 3
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Terminal. In the Console window, look under the heading DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION on the left for crash reports related to Spotlight. If you don't see that heading, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar. A Spotlight crash report has a name beginning in "mds" or "mdworker" and ending in ".crash". Select the most recent such report, if any, from the System and User subcategories and post the entire contents — the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post any other kind of diagnostic report, such as hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

A possible cause for the Lion freezes: Spotlight indexing

Does your Mac freeze mysteriously after upgrading to Lion?
Mine had that problem, but after troubleshooting, I seem to have identified the culprit (at least for my MacBook) and, after deleting the offending file, I have since experienced no problem. Here, I will share a case report with the hope that it will help others troubleshoot their computers experiencing the same problem.
The Problem: Mac (running Lion 10.7 or 10.7.1) freezes sometime after logging on. The freeze begins by an inability to get a response to clicks. The cursor is still active, but after a click or two the cursor turns into a spinning disc. After some time, the clock stops updating on the menu bar.
Mine froze consistently after about 15-20 min after logging on. It happened regardless of which application I was using, it froze even if I didn't do anything after logging on. It required a reboot (control-command-power button on a MacBook) everytime.
Was Spotlight indexing active right before the freeze happened? When Spotlight indexing is active, the magnifying glass icon on the upper right corner of your display will show a blinking dot. Mine was.
A Possible Culprit: Spotlight may have encountered a corrupt file on the hard disk during indexing.
What you can do:
Before you do anything, it is recommended that you have backed up all your files. Unfortunately, it is difficult to back up now because the Mac may freeze during the back up process.
1. Check the errors related to Spotlight by opening Console, which is an utility app that you can find in the Applications>Utilities folder. Do you see error messages for "mdworkers"? It does not always show up before the freeze, but this may indicate some problems during Spotlight indexing.
2. Confirm the problem by turning off Spotlight indexing. You can do this in a number of ways, but I will list two ways below:
a) Go to System Preferences and click on Spotlight icon. Under the Privacy tab, click on "+" icon and add the "Users" folder (or any particular folder that you may suspect). The indexing will not happen to files in that folder. Also, turn off Time Machine and disconnect back up disks, if you use any. Apparently Spotlight indexes within the Time Machine backups. OR
b) For experienced users: Open Terminal and type "sudo mdutil -i off" without the quotes. (To turn it back on, type "sudo mdutil -i on /" without the quotes)
3. Try using your computer with Spotlight turned off. Does it still freeze? If it does not, you have confirmed that the problem is with Spotlight indexing.
4. Find the offending file that causes problem by turning Spotlight indexing back on...
a) Remove the folder by highlighting and clicking on "-" button under the Privacy tab. OR
b) For experienced users: Type "sudo mdutil -i on /" without the quotes.
5. ...and then repeating steps 2a, 3, and 4a. Try isolating different folders until you can narrow down the problem. This process may take a while.
6. Once you narrowed down to a few folders, try QuickLook through the contents of the folder while the Console is open. To use QuickLook, highlight a file in the Finder and hit a space bar on your keyboard. It is helpful to set the Finder in a column view so you can use arrow keys to navigate through the folders. Does Console show you an error when you QuickLook a file? Can you double click and open that file? If not, the file may be corrupt. Trash that file and empty trash.
7. Now turn Spotlight indexing back on (step 4) and use your computer for a while. Does it still freeze? If so, repeat the process and find other corrupt files.
For me, it was a single corrupt image file in the Documents folder that caused the freezing problem. I deleted it and the problem went away. Since that file had been untouched for years, and I did not experience the same freezing problem in Snow Leopard, I suspect that Spotlight in Lion is somehow less permissive of corrupt files assuming that the file did not corrupt after the upgrade.
Steps 4-7 is cumbersome and it takes a long time to troubleshoot. If you know of a faster way to identify corrupt files, please share in this thread. Also, I think Spotlight should alert the users when it encounters a corrupt file and give us a choice to delete it on the spot. Please join me by sending a feedback to Apple about this.

My G5, PPC, came with Tiger installed and ran great. I decided to upgrade to Leopard (not snow leopard) and at first it seemed to work well.
Here is where you should backup, reinitialize, and make sure you use retail 10.4 rather than any OEM DVD?
After several days I noticed I have Permission errors that Disk Utility would not fix. (The only way to repair this was to insert the install disk and run Disk Utility from there: which means you have to reimport/install all the OS updates over again)
Some real confusion. Permissions can and should be done while booted from your hard drive; never run from older version of OS X.
Not all permission messages are errors.
Bootable backups (clones).
Invest in 3rd party repair programs.
Eventually the OS was crashing and freezing so I went to a local Apple repair store to ask why. Apparently Leopard is unstable on some G5 towers.
No, not really.
But you do have to insure your hardware, your software, is also current.
I decided to reinstall Tiger and still had problems. After about 5 attempts at reinstalling the OS I realized I was using a disk from a G4 tower that my kids use, so I found the disk that come with my G5 and the install worked perfectly.
So it appears that not all OS install disks are the same:
No secret there. NEVER use an OEM disc except your own; or, use retail full install versions is all. I guess you never came across that bit.
Sorry you had to take so much time, but sounds like came away with some misconceptions.

Tried to fix spotlight indexing and lost my entire drive and backup; can you help me find them?

Hi,
I am in a complete crisis. If anyone can help me, I'd be very grateful.
I tried to correct my Spotlight indexing by using a combination of the sudo mdutil -E / , sudo mdutil -i on / , and sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100 commands from the terminal.
I am not sure what happened, but the computer went into an interminable color-wheel and, when I shut down and rebooted after an hour or two, I found that both my main drive and my backup drive had severe problems.
DiskUtility volunteered to correct these. I ran it on my main drive and found that my entire directory appears to have been erased.
Disk Warrior cannot repair. Nor can TechTool. Both declare that the directory structure is now beyond repair (which they also say of my former backup clone).
My main drive now has barely nine files left - and a handful of empty folders:
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Library/Application Support/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Library/Keychains/System.keychain
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Users/ericcolvin/Library/Frameworks/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Users/ericcolvin/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Users/ericcolvin/Library/Preferences/com.bittorrent.uTorrent.plist
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Users/ericcolvin/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Users/ericcolvin/Library/Autosave Information/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Directories/System/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Directories/System/Library/Exten sions/KextPropertyValues_OSBundleHelper_i386.plist.gz
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Directories/System/Library/Exten sions/KextIdentifiers.plist.gz
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Directories/System/Library/Exten sions/IOKitPersonalities_i386.ioplist.gz
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.bootstamps/0E6271FF-3F33-3661-9B4A-38AFF32D4 860/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/Applications/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/net/
file:///Volumes/Eric's HD/home/
Though I did not run any file repairs on the back up drive, it has also lost all of its files (it shows just one remaining
file:///Volumes/Eric's Backup/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi - whatever that is).
FileSalvage is now beavering away, attempting to scavenge some 350Gb of applications, e-mails, photos, iTunes, and movies (most of which it is unable to name). But these will all be unlabelled and randomly organised by extension type. These could take months to sift through and the list is almost certain to be incomplete. I have no other backups of my system apart from a two year old clone.
Please tell me. Is there anything I can do to get back my lost directory structure?
                       Might there be some use of an Undelete routine that might recover the directory alone and thus allow me to salvage either disk?
                        I don't even know what sort of extension to hunt for in order to attempt such a restore
                       - nor how I might drop it back into its correct spot on the volume.
All suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks, guys.
Yes, FileSalvage seems able to retrieve a vast jumble of unnamed "junk files," a tiny percentage of which are probably highly valuable to me. The problem will be finding them amongst the jumble. It could take weeks. ITunes files and MP3s are more promising, as it seems to have been able to reconstruct the files' names - and even cover art - from their metadata.
No. TechTool Pro wrote nothing at all. Sadly, though, I had allowed Disk Utility to reduce the number of threads or leaves or something in the volume directory, before I realised the gravity of the situation. It has thus made a very small alteration to my main drive (resulting, no doubt in the creation of those 9 system files and their containing folders). But the back-up drive had nothing further written to it since the apparent deletion of the volume.
I downloaded a freeware program called TestDisk which claims to analyse drive partitions. The partitions on each of my two physical drives (the internal and the backup clone) were not apparently affected - just the total loss of the volume directory structure on the boot partition in each case. So, would this be the wrong tool for the job? http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk It does claim to be able to "Rebuild NTFS boot sector." I don't really know what that means. Can anyone tell me whether a rebuilt boot sector will enable me to recover a deleted volume directory structure?
Meanwhile, I am also running a trial version of Stellar Phoenix, which claims to reinstate "lost/deleted volumes." It claims to have "found 6 lost/deleted volumes" already - after five hours, during which it has scanned about 5% of my 1.5 T external drive. So I suppose it may well take days to finish scanning. Then, I expect it may ask me to buy a serial code in order to proceed.
Does anyone have experience with Phoenix, or understand the jargon about lost/deleted volumes? Once I've bought the full version, is there a good chance it will actually reconstruct the whole volume as it once was - or is it more likely just to scavenge scores of thousands of nameless file snippets as per FileSalvage?
I don't have a problem with paying the boffins at Stellar if they are actually able to save me months of sifting through random unnamed files in order to locate the ones I've lost.

Spotlight Indexing Problem

I've been scouring the internet looking in forum after forum for the answer to this problem for several hours now. I've tried all the usual fixes (which I will detail below) and none of them seem to be working.
I recently installed Leopard from Tiger on my MacBook. Since then I've been having a problem with Spotlight hanging while it's indexing. It gets about 80% of the way through before it starts hanging. I have no external hard drives connected (and therefore have not begun using Time Machine).
I Repaired Disk Permissions and booted up from the install disc and Repaired Disk.
I opened Terminal and entered +sudo mdutil -E /+ which restarted Spotlight indexing, but the problem arose again.
I added my entire hard drive to the Privacy list within Spotlight options. Spotlight stopped indexing (as would be expected). When I removed my hard drive from the Privacy list, the problem arose again.
Now, I have told Spotlight not to index any of the categories within Spotlight preferences. I will add each category in, one-by-one. This is currently taking place, and I will add posts as progress persists.
Can anyone help? I would really appreciate any kind of assistance in this matter.

I've been seeing the exact same problem and have posted queries with no solution. Currently my status is that I have switched off Spotlight indexing with an app called Spotless and am using EasyFind as my search tool. This is far from satisfactory though, as Spotlight is embedded inside many Apple apps as the search tool (Mail, for instance) and EasyFind doesn't replicate the function of searching inside apps. Since I rely on searching my mail more often than anything else on my drives, I'm not happy.
Spotlight has failed on both my my MacBook Pro and also my dual quad MacPro, despite my having done complete clean installs on both these machines. I've tried a process of elimination to attempt to find the file/files that are the culprit for the indexing hangs but it is a tedious and indefinite process, principally because it's impossible to know exactly when Spotlight gets hung up (I basically just have to listen for my fans to spin up watch the Activity Monitor for mds taking over the CPU). The console logs are almost no help in trying to find out what's going on, as they seem only to register the problem after I have quit Console and relaunched it (ie, they are not seeing the process hang as it happens).
One thing that may help you (although it didn't help me) is that Spotless allows you to delete old indexes created under earlier systems, that, as I understand it, may hang around through the install of 10.5 and interfere with new indexing.

Confirmation on How to Stop Spotlight Indexing an External Hard Drive

Hello everyone,
I know there are a number of posts on this but I just want to confirm: Can I stop Spotlight from indexing my external FireWire hard drive by adding its name to the Privacy pane in Spotlight's preferences when the drive is mounted? (I'm a little low on internal hard disk space on my iBook so I want to keep the index as lean as possible.)

Georgy
Keep in mind that the index is stored on the drive that is being indexed. As such, indexing an external volume does not affect your main drive.
Remember also, that when you do update your external drive, the indexing only updates the changes made to the drive on the fly, provided of course if it is mounted and allowed to do so.
My suggestion, let Spotlight index the drive. Particularly if you are using it as a backup. Once in place, updating the index and searching is extremely fast.
Be careful however, of using third-party solutions. Some will affect Spotlight's normal indexing process and their preferences have to be changed for Spotlight to work.

Spotlight index unreliable on removable volumes

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