How to search a USB drive?

July 1, 2006 2:55 AM

Is there a self-contained app which sits on my USB drive which will allow me to search its file contents?

Is there an app (free would be best) which can sit on my USB drive and search through the files I have on it selecting those with the keyword which I specify. For example, the USB drive mostly contains pdf files - hundreds of them, how can I quickly located those which are relevant to a specific topic I'm working on right now?

posted by porktrap to computers & internet (3 comments total)

You're mounting the drive somewhere, right? Can't you just use the windows "search in file" on the USB drive mount? Or if you're in linux, use grep?
posted by beerbajay at 3:54 AM on July 1, 2006

Agent Ransack will search inside the files, as will the Windows search function mentioned by BBJ, but both will take a long time to search inside hundreds of text-based PDFs. (They are text-based rather than image-based, aren't they?)

Of the indexed search tools available today, I found a while ago that only dtSearch will index removable media. That product will cost a couple of hundred dollars, though.

The ideal answer to your question is a product that is no longer made available - AltaVista Personal, I believe it was called, was designed to do an index on permanent removable media like a CD and then offer an indexed search to those using it. Alas, it has gone. It may be possible to locate the executable somewhere.
posted by yclipse at 4:05 AM on July 1, 2006

Gaviri PocketSearch does this but will only allow index up to 2000 documents without purchasing it. If you like it, it is not expensive.

You might be interested in this list of portable applications over at Wikipedia.
posted by utsutsu at 10:02 AM on July 1, 2006