GoogleDesktopSearchTips

How to force a clean re-index/reindex without reinstalling

1. Shut down GDS
2. The index is stored in:

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop Search

1. Delete all the files in there

1. Using Notepad create a file with <code>!C:[tab]!D:[tab]!E:[tab]</code>

   • Enter a tab character, not "[tab]".
   • Enter as many drives as you want indexed.
   • Select all and copy to clipboard
2. Regedit

   1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Desktop\HistoricalCapture\Crawler

   2. Paste the clipboard into the CRAWL_DIRS entry
      1. The tabs will appear as little boxes.
      2. Save it
   3. Delete the contents of the CRAWL_FILE entry.
   4. Delete the contents of the CRAWL_FAV entry.
   5. Delete the contents of the CRAWL_IE entry.

copy all of the following blue text into a file called gds.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Desktop\HistoricalCapture\Crawler]
"CRAWL_IE"=""
"CRAWL_FAV"=""
"CRAWL_FILE"=""
"CRAWL_DIRS"="!C:	!D:	!E:	"

Note: As I stated above if you have more than one drive or partition, edit the last part the tabs so it looks like "CRAWL_DIRS"="!C: !D: "Save gds.reg on your desktop or somewhere you can find it again. Make sure GDS is shut down and you've deleted the files in your index folder then double click on the file gds.reg and say yes to the prompt about updating your registry. Keep the file around in case you want to reindex at a later time.

Start the GDS system again and allow your system to index all the files.