Spotlight not finding some files

[LoneGoose]

Hi,

Spotlight isn't finding some files/folders on my hard-drive. It seems like a random selection of about 20% of files it won't find. On such a file, even if I type it's exact name into Spotlight it won't find them. This applies to some files in my Documents folder and some in folders on the desktop.

Is there a way to 'rebuild' Spotlights 'index' or whatever it is that it uses?

I used to use TimeMachine but I haven't had that external hard-drive plugged in for some time now. Think it could be that? I could start using TimeMachine again and see if that fixes it...

Any insight would be helpful and interesting. Thanks!

By the way - OS X 10.5.8.

Nicolas

[DavidMa]

here's a bit about it on the apple Forums:
Apple - Support - Discussions - Spotlight sees comments created ...

I've also heard tell of a fix, if you re-do the 10.5.8 install using the combo updater, it may restore the Spotlight db.
sometimes works, sometimes not, you mileage may vary...

[LoneGoose]

Thanks, David! The Apple Forums link lead me in the right direction. This simple procedure from the forums solved my problem:

System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy... drag the boot volume into the list then delete it with the 'minus' sign. Spotlight then starts to reindex your hard-drive.

[prepressguru]

You may want to avoid spotlight all together and use a utility called EasyFind. It is much better and free.

Good luck