Indexing the contents of a hard drive? 10.3.9

[alien]

I'm sure this is going to be a simple answer, but what does indexing the contents of a drive do? I'm assuming it figures out where everything is on the drive? Does it actually increase performance at all? Is there any reason to/not to index a drive?

 

[Heb1228]

I wondered the same thing. It takes FOREVER and I never saw any benefit after doing it. I guess it must serve some purpose, but I sure never figured it out.

 

[Will Cheyney]

To search the contents of your files, the Finder must index the disk or folder that contains the files. Usually the Finder indexes disks and folders when you search them. However, you may need to update the index.

I guess the Spotlight in 10.4 advances on this.

 

[EGT]

Is there a way to stop a drive from indexing once you connect it?

 

[Will Cheyney]

Do you mean 10.4's Spotlight indexing, or indexing in 10.3?
Why would you want to stop it?

 

[EGT]

Oh sorry, Spotlight indexing. See, I have a backup drive which is just a copy of everything on my internal. There is no point in it running through the indexing if I'm never actually going to search from it (or is there?)

It's smart updated so even if i let it index, the next time i connect it indexing would start again.

 

[Will Cheyney]

I too have an external drive (connected by Firewire, used as a backup) and it doesn't reindex the whole drive every time I plug it in... It did initially, the first time it was connected.
I've never noticed to indexing again actually... I don't know!