How to change directory of windows search without activating windows search?

Question

Windows could not start the windows search service on local computer

I have this problem and none of the normal solution work.

So I open event viewer and this is what I see

The Windows Search Service has failed to create the new search index. Internal error <1, 0x80070003, Failed to create application directory:

E:\index\Search\Data\Applications\ .

I think I know what's the problem is. Basically I set the windows search directory to

E:\index\Search\Data\Applications\

However, that drive no longer exist. I want to change the location of windows search directory but because windows service is not running I can't do that

So it's catch 2 2

Where is that info is located

I did a bit research and some sites say that the info is in registry

Yet my registry listed the default directory as the location

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/59016-change-search-index-location-windows-10-a.html

So no good Update: I find E:\index\Search\Data\Applications\ in the registry and I found it in

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\DefaultApplicationPath

I tried to change and get an error message that can be fixed here https://www.howtogeek.com/262464/how-to-gain-full-permissions-to-edit-protected-registry-keys/

Answer 1

I think I have to answer this because there is no other answer anywhere.

Basically, indexing options do not work and when you try to start you get error device not ready.

I tried many solutions and none answer it. Frustrated I go to event viewer.

There I saw: The Windows Search Service has failed to create the new search index. Internal error <1, 0x80070003, Failed to create application directory: E:\index\Search\Data\Applications\ .

So that's obviously the issue. My drive E has become a drive D.

This creates a chicken and egg situation. I want to change the location of index search directory to D:\index\Search\Data\Applications\ . To do so, however, I need windows search to run. For windows search to run that directory must exist.

There are essentially 3 solutions.

1. Change registry to change index search directory
2. Change the drive letter of my D: to E:
3. As @Seth says, create a virtual drive.

Number 2 is the easiest. However, I wanna do number 1

I do not know where the location of index search is. So I use registry editor find feature and I found it. I found it in a very unlikely place.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Search\Gathering Manager\DefaultApplicationPath

I tried to change it but I got permissions problem. So I uses solution https://www.howtogeek.com/262464/how-to-gain-full-permissions-to-edit-protected-registry-keys/

I restarted the computer and voila, the indexing services work again.

This is the only place where I know the solution is written.

Answer 2

If the problem is related to the path being inaccesible you could use the Windows disk management (diskmgmt.msc) to do a number of things:

• Add a secondary drive letter to an existing drive. This might be an issue if you plan to move the folder to the same drive but might be a good option if your drive just changed letters.
• Setup a temporary virtual disk (really small) to have a disk the service could write to that would also be easy to discard.

Either way the path would be accessible and the service should come up (if that is the problem). Which should allow you to change the directory.

Answer 3

This problem happened to me when I needed to rebuild the index and it could not, because the drive letter in the registry was wrong (did not exist on the PC) for the path to where to rebuild.

In my case here are some specifics.

1. The path in the registry was to the MS Onenote Cache for indexing had the wrong drive letter. WRONG_DRIVE:\backups\onenotecache\index\search\data\temp
2. Errors pertaining to the search/indexing services could be found in the Windows Event Viewer. These were detailed enough to see that it was a wrong drive which it considered 'inaccessible' or full or otherwise not functional.
3. The registry item that needed to be changed was DefaultApplicationsPath under the Gathering Manager item of the Windows Search HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
4. This item was locked so I need to use the information provided herein to reset the owner of that registry item so that I could change its value.
5. The wrong drive letter was used in multiple places in the registry, requiring a complete search to change the drive letter.
6. Because I was changing drives I had to create the full folder structure on the 'new' drive in order for the registry changes to take effect and the indexing to automatically start itself.