Windows – Index a low-cost NAS on Windows 7

desktop-searchlibrariesnaswindows 7windows-search

Has anyone found a way to index the files stored on a Networked Attached Storage on Windows 7 so that the files can be available in Windows Search and Libraries? I am referring to the cheap and available NAS like the Western Digital My Book series that use an embedded linux server.

Similar question: http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-networking/6700-indexing-nas-drive-libraries.html

EDIT

Windows help proposes to make the files stored on the NAS available offline. This is obviously not a good solution if the NAS has more data than what the client can store.

If the folder is on a network device that is not part of your homegroup, it
can be included as long as the content
of the folder is indexed. If the
folder is already indexed on the
device where it is stored, you should
be able to include it directly in the
library.

If the network folder is not indexed,
an easy way to index it is to make the
folder available offline. This will
create offline versions of the files
in the folder, and add these files to
the index on your computer. Once you
make a folder available offline, you
can include it in a library.

When you make a network folder
available offline, copies of all the
files in that folder will be stored on
your computer's hard disk. Take this
into consideration if the network
folder contains a large number of
files.

Best Answer

Contrary to all of the posts that I've found on forums regarding adding network folders as libraries and then having them fail to index, it is possible to do this within Windows 7. I managed to fix mine today by using a combination of symbolic links and Windows Media Centre. Obviously this works best if you are trying to include a folder containing Music, Pictures, Videos or Movies etc. although you can also do this for your Documents folder if you like. To include a network folder in a library and have it indexed by Windows 7, follows these instructions:

  1. Open Windows Explorer and click Map Network Drive. Set the Drive letter and Folder then click Finish. I did this for my Music folder which is stored on my NAS, so I mapped M: to \\10.1.1.2\Music for example.
  2. In Windows Explorer navigate to C:\Users\Username, right-click My Music folder and select Properties from the popup-menu.
  3. Click the Location tab then click the Move... button.
  4. In the Select a Destination dialog click Computer, select the new M: drive, then click the Select Folder button, or just type M: in the textbox.
  5. Click OK. When asked if you want to move all of the files from the old location to the new location click No.
  6. Open Windows Media Centre and navigate to Tasks | Settings. Click Media Libraries.
  7. Select the Music radio button then click Next.
  8. Select the Add folders to the library radio button then click Next.
  9. Select the On this computer (includes mapped network drives) radio button then click Next.
  10. Tick the checkbox next to the M: network folder containing your Music, e.g. mine was \\10.1.1.2\Music (M:), then click Next.
  11. Select the Yes, use these locations radio button then click the Finish button.
  12. Wait for Windows Media Centre to finish indexing your folder.
  13. Close and re-open Windows Explorer and navigate to your Music library. You should see that it is now pointing to your network folder. If you try the search in the top-right you'll find that it is also indexed.

Btw, I accidentally indexed the same folder twice while doing this so make sure you don't do the same thing! If you do you'll need to go back into Windows Media Centre and select the Remove folders from library radio button.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Richard

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