SearchIndexer.exe is killing my system. How do I turn it off?

I recently reinstalled Vista from the HP factory restore, and now, one day later, my system is almost completely unusable due to something totally hogging the hard drive. Windows Media Center isn't even capable of playing stored TV -- it's c h o ppy like crazy.

In the event viewer, I see SearchIndexer.exe gets blamed for excessive disk usage, and then every other process in the system.

However, I can't find SearchIndexer.exe in the task manager (even with all-users view), Windows Search has been disabled in the services manager.

Is there any way of restoring my system to normal performance, or do I have to reinstall Vista yet again, or maybe install XP32 and try to scrounge for 32-bit drivers for all my hardware?

Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services / Scroll down to Windows
Search and disabled it.

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"iainmcc" <iainmcc.3imy3b@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:iainmcc.3imy3b@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> I recently reinstalled Vista from the HP factory restore, and now, one
> day later, my system is almost completely unusable due to something
> totally hogging the hard drive. Windows Media Center isn't even capable
> of playing stored TV -- it's c h o ppy like
> crazy.
>
> In the event viewer, I see SearchIndexer.exe gets blamed for excessive
> disk usage, and then every other process in the system.
>
> However, I can't find SearchIndexer.exe in the task manager (even with
> all-users view), Windows Search has been disabled in the services
> manager.
>
> Is there any way of restoring my system to normal performance, or do I
> have to reinstall Vista yet again, or maybe install XP32 and try to
> scrounge for 32-bit drivers for all my hardware?
>
>
> --
> iainmcc
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> iainmcc's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/iainmcc.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/1068909.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

Sorry I did not read the whole post that said you already turned off Window
Search in Services.

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"iainmcc" <iainmcc.3imy3b@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:iainmcc.3imy3b@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> I recently reinstalled Vista from the HP factory restore, and now, one
> day later, my system is almost completely unusable due to something
> totally hogging the hard drive. Windows Media Center isn't even capable
> of playing stored TV -- it's c h o ppy like
> crazy.
>
> In the event viewer, I see SearchIndexer.exe gets blamed for excessive
> disk usage, and then every other process in the system.
>
> However, I can't find SearchIndexer.exe in the task manager (even with
> all-users view), Windows Search has been disabled in the services
> manager.
>
> Is there any way of restoring my system to normal performance, or do I
> have to reinstall Vista yet again, or maybe install XP32 and try to
> scrounge for 32-bit drivers for all my hardware?
>
>
> --
> iainmcc
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> iainmcc's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/iainmcc.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/1068909.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

Thanks, PaulM

It turns out that it was a catastrophic hard drive failure. I had swapped my two HDs because drive 0 was making a loud noise, and recloned Vista onto the working drive. The bad drive suddenly went silent and continued working as I was rescuing files off of it, so I (stupidly) left it plugged in after I had rescued everyting, and just reformatted it and used it as a junk drawer.

So, the SearchIndexer seems to be an innocent victim -- the drive was getting flaky fast, and Vista just doesn't seem to have any way of dealing with it.

It also proves that S.M.A.R.T. is a total crock -- the drive reported success on the short test right up until it started failing to attach to the SATA bus. Never ever did it report a SMART failure.

meh.

Glad to hear you found the problem.

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"iainmcc" <iainmcc.3insnd@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:iainmcc.3insnd@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Thanks, PaulM
>
> It turns out that it was a catastrophic hard drive failure. I had
> swapped my two HDs because drive 0 was making a loud noise, and recloned
> Vista onto the working drive. The bad drive suddenly went silent and
> continued working as I was rescuing files off of it, so I (stupidly)
> left it plugged in after I had rescued everyting, and just reformatted
> it and used it as a junk drawer.
>
> So, the SearchIndexer seems to be an innocent victim -- the drive was
> getting flaky fast, and Vista just doesn't seem to have any way of
> dealing with it.
>
> It also proves that S.M.A.R.T. is a total crock -- the drive reported
> success on the short test right up until it started failing to attach to
> the SATA bus. Never ever did it report a SMART failure.
>
> meh.
>
>
> --
> iainmcc
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> iainmcc's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/iainmcc.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/1068909.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>

> So, the SearchIndexer seems to be an innocent victim -- the drive was
> getting flaky fast, and Vista just doesn't seem to have any way of
> dealing with it.

Oh, come on! It's a bit unfair to blame Vista for not "dealing" with a
failing hard drive! What did you expect it to do?

If you want an ultra-resilient operating system that will manage multiple
hardware and software failures, you'll probably need something from the
aerospace industry.

SteveT

SMART can't tell you that the HDD controller is about to wig out. Sad but
true, just a fact of life. What this may mean is your HDDs surface is fine.

Its Windows Search that's a crock because people at MS have problems with
things like:

while (driveAvailable)
{
indexOnlyALittleBit()
}

or this one, which would stop Windows hanging on startup:

while (driversLeftToLoad)
{
giveOneDriver15SecondsToStartOrItDies()
}

Although by far my favourite would still have to be (their code not mine
this time):

while (theresAnUnidentifiedCDInTheDrive)
{
while (theresAnUnidentifiedCDInTheDrive)
{
while (theresAnUnidentifiedCDInTheDrive)
{
...
}
}
}

It's OK, perhaps in version 8 of this product they will develop it rather
than reskin it.


"iainmcc" wrote:

>
> Thanks, PaulM
>
> It turns out that it was a catastrophic hard drive failure. I had
> swapped my two HDs because drive 0 was making a loud noise, and recloned
> Vista onto the working drive. The bad drive suddenly went silent and
> continued working as I was rescuing files off of it, so I (stupidly)
> left it plugged in after I had rescued everyting, and just reformatted
> it and used it as a junk drawer.
>
> So, the SearchIndexer seems to be an innocent victim -- the drive was
> getting flaky fast, and Vista just doesn't seem to have any way of
> dealing with it.
>
> It also proves that S.M.A.R.T. is a total crock -- the drive reported
> success on the short test right up until it started failing to attach to
> the SATA bus. Never ever did it report a SMART failure.
>
> meh.
>
>
> --
> iainmcc
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> iainmcc's Profile: http://forums.techarena.in/members/iainmcc.htm
> View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/1068909.htm
>
> http://forums.techarena.in
>
>