Save .db to do a clean install of Windows 11

General discussion related to "Everything".
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armaugh
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2023 11:21 am

Save .db to do a clean install of Windows 11

Post by armaugh »

I have indexed drives that are not available to me on this continent (seriously). I want to do a clean install of Windows 11 and restore the .db so as to maintain the indexes that were done on the unavailable drives. I see from discussions that the .db is located in Appdata. So, is there a best/correct way of restoring the .db (saved to a drive before Windows re-install) to the newly installed Everything on the newly created Windows 11?
therube
Posts: 4655
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Save .db to do a clean install of Windows 11

Post by therube »

The .db is typically written out on Everything close.
So in that respect, I would Quit Everything.

Make a copy of the .db.
Make another copy of the .db.
Make yet another copy of the .db.

Yes, I'd make enough copies, that you'll feel confident that you have the state of the file when you last closed.
And can't hurt to copy them to multiple devices. And even verify the hashes of all those copies...


Then... oh, not quite sure after that.
But you have copies that you can play with :-).

My thought is...

Install Windows.
Install Everything.

Quit Everything.
Copy your backed up .db overtop the (newly created) existing copy in %appdata%.

Open Everything & see what shows?

What does show may depend on the setting for
Indexes | NTFS | Automatically remove offline volumes
, but I'm not quite sure how that may play out.


Note that the -read-only switch can be beneficial (if you want to view a backed up .db).

(You may want backups of other files in your profile; .ini's & whatnot, at least for reference.)
void
Developer
Posts: 15550
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Save .db to do a clean install of Windows 11

Post by void »

Please consider File Lists.

File Lists are designed for offline files/folders.
You can include file lists in your Everything index.



To export your offline drive to a file list:
  • In Everything, search for:
    d:
    (where d: is your offline drive)
  • From the File Menu, click Export....
  • Change Save as type to: EFU Everything File List.
  • Choose a filename and click Save.


To add your file list to your Everything index
  • In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
  • Click the File List tab on the left.
  • Click Add....
  • Select your file list and click Open.
  • Click OK.
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