Now where is that file?

Have you ever been frustrated because you can't find the file on your hard drive that you know is there somewhere? You remember some sketchy details: it was definitely a PDF, it described important findings on e-learning and more importantly - you desperately need it now for your e-learning project ;) !!!

Well here are some practical tips that I have found useful. I use a two-pronged approach: 

1. Ultrasearch (Free): http://www.jam-software.de/ultrasearch/.
2. Exalead One Desktop (Free): http://download.cnet.com/Exalead-one-desktop/3000-2379_4-10458231.html

I use Ultrasearch first because its fast. It does not compile an index of files, but searches the Master File Table for the file you need. This is useful if you can remember at least one of the words in the file's name. You can search using a wildcard (*) and restrict it to certain types of files.

If I cannot find the file using Ultrasearch, its time to get out the serious file indexing tool - Exalead One Desktop. Although this is free software, it is particularly difficult to locate on the Exalead website, so I have provided a download link to Cnet.

Exalead indexes all the files on your disk (as well as network drives if you want) and your email. It uses your browser to show the search results. Exalead provides what is called faceted results. This means you can click on various options to refine your search to a particular type of file, author, date, size, etc.

I hope this helps you to reduce the frustration and time spent looking for that elusive file!