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Windows 10 and Search Indexer: windows.edb is huge

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Friday, January 27, 2017 11:28 AM | 3 votes

Hi!

So, I just got a new notebook with Windows 10.

I'm coming from Windows 7.

In previous system, W7 as mentioned, I had 309.000+ files indexed for a windows.edb size of 1,4 GB.

I transferred nearly everything on the new machine and let the indexer run.

The first time it indexed 280.000+ files for a stunning 60 GB (sixty gigabytes) of windows.edb.

Decided to delete and rebuild, I deleted as many mails and files (a backup was already in place) as possible before re-indexing again.

The second time it indexed 155.000+ files for a windows.edb size of 15 GB+.

So I deleted more files and emails, in the meantime the Search Indexer decided to delete+build on its own. It's now on 109.000+ files indexed for a 6,5 GB windows.edb file.

In the end: Windows 7 was working great with indexing and Windows 10 can't do the same work with the same data.

The parameters for indexing properties and contents are the same in both W7 and W10 for the extensions I typically use.

At a certain point in time I was having issues with W7+Search Indexer and was able to uninstall (n.b.: uninstall, not deactivate) and reinstall; that fixed a problem I had. In W10 I'm not able to find any way to uninstall and reinstall it.

Thank you in advance.

All replies (22)

Sunday, April 22, 2018 9:28 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote

in the .gthr files you can find which files are scanned.
Look if there are some files constantly re-scanned.

Friday, August 24, 2018 7:03 PM ✅Answered | 2 votes

For anyone with this problem here are two simple solutions although they may not be to everyone's liking. Just remember that by default Windows is indexing vast numbers of files you didn't even know existed let alone have an interest in their contents.

Pragmatic solution: open Indexing Options, Advanced, Files types. Deselect everything then select just the small number where you might reasonably be interested in the contents.

Drastic solution: For each HDD open Properties, deselect the option to index file contents, go for a coffee while Windows processes every file on the drive - one at a time.

Monday, January 30, 2017 7:19 AM

Hi ,

When delete this file and rebuild the index, please make sure the PST file to index included. And make sure you have installed all availalbe update to keep your system up to date. For Search and Indexing issue, we could run the built-in troubleshoot tool to have a diagnostic.

  1. Type troubleshooting in the search bar.
  2. Select Troubleshooting.
  3. Select View all on the top left corner.
  4. Click Search and Indexing.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.
  6. Check if issue persists.

If the issue persists, I suggest you to change the index location and check if the large Windows.edb file still exists, Please perform the following steps to move the file:

  1. Enter Indexing Options into the search field on the Start Menu.
  2. Click on Indexing Options.
  3. Click on Advanced at the bottom.
  4. Click on Select New and specify a new location for your Windows.edb file.
  5. Click on OK and wait until Windows restarted the Windows.

Best regards

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Tuesday, January 31, 2017 1:44 PM

Hi,

unfortunately your procedures didn't solve the problem.

I've tried the first one but no problem was found by the Troubleshooter.
So I tried the second one, even specifying the new location the windows.edb is increasing drastically: 61.329 files (not finished) is taking up 5.9GB.

Is there a way to access what's inside windows.edb and determine what kind of files are being indexed that are making it so big?

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 4:34 PM

Just finished the indexing process:
127.717 items for a windows.edb file size of 12.6GB

I defragmented it and it's now 7.4GB, with less than half the files I had on W7.

I ask this again: is there a way to analyze the .edb file to understand what is causing the problem?

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 5:35 PM

If you think it is corrupted, then try using any third party tool for repairing the existing file.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 5:50 PM

I don't really know, although you can repair it with esentutl.

I've already rebuilt it from scratch 5 or 6 times, one of them (the last one) in a new location.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017 1:35 AM

Hi ,

Good to hear that defragmented it. For you question about analyzing the .edb file, you may need some third party tool to to this, try search online.

Best regards

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Wednesday, February 1, 2017 12:56 PM

It's not definitely sorted out.

On W7, with more data (the same data I tried to shrunk) the windows.edb was only 1.4GB.

Now something else is happening, the System process is writing edb.jtx files like hell and the windows.edb is increasing in size in real time. It is now at 12GB and continuously growing.

The indexer says that is completed though.

Edit: it's now stable at 14,4GB, I've already tried defragmenting it but the size stays the same.

Saturday, August 26, 2017 12:56 AM

I am on Windows 10 and I just checked the size of my windows.edb and it is 92GB. This is ridiculous, my hard drive is only 500GB. there is no way that 1/5 of it needs to be a search index.

www.justechn.com

Friday, October 20, 2017 2:47 PM | 1 vote

Mine's even worse. I have a 160GB SSD and my Windows.edb file is 85.8GB! Microsoft, you've got to be kidding me! Is there no way to limit the size of this file?

Thursday, January 25, 2018 4:16 PM

Mine's even worse. I have a 160GB SSD and my Windows.edb file is 85.8GB! Microsoft, you've got to be kidding me! Is there no way to limit the size of this file?

Got the exact same problem. 250GB SSD partitioned in two volumes, 50/50. I install the newest and finest PC on Windows 10 x64, 16GB RAM and new Office 2016 x64 Business... the whole nine yards. I give it to our main secretary who has a ton of mails, 16GB pst file and I am in a world of pain! 80 GB of index file! Now I have to transfer the index file from a crippling C partition to and E partition which is on a larger mechanical drive.

Sunday, April 1, 2018 3:55 AM | 1 vote

256GB Dell (Samsung) SM871, Windows.edb file is 180GB!!!

Sunday, April 1, 2018 8:35 AM | 2 votes

I have seen a report where an ever increasing Windows.edb file was due to an application log file being in the indexed locations. As the file was indexed with content, all the added log entries were added to the index.
Excluding the log file location from indexing fixed the problem.

So when the size increasing daily, we need to find what files the indexer is accessing.
You could look in the last file under C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\GatherLogs\SystemIndex
when there is always the same file accessed this might give a clue.

Saturday, April 21, 2018 2:14 PM

I have followed your steps and have located two files, a SystemIndex.1.Crwl file, and a SystemIndex.1.gthr file, how do I find out what they are logging repeatly? If that is what I have to do.

Monday, April 23, 2018 6:49 PM | 1 vote

On my Win 10 laptop with a 255GB SSD, I had a 160GB Windows.edb file.  I shut down the Search service and removed the file then started it back up.  Within 6 hours it was over 1GB again.

I looked at the SystemIndex.3.gthr file in  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\GatherLogs\SystemIndex and saw tons of lines with files like

file:C:/Users/Public/Application Data/Temp/2018042314324595_ServiceTemp.in

Assuming that is a timestamp there are 15 of these files per second.  Anyone have any idea where they come from?

I opened up Indexing Options and modified the Users listing to exclude C:/Users/Public/Application Data/

Then I hit Rebuild.  So far so good, but I will check again tomorrow.

Friday, May 11, 2018 9:08 PM

Hello everyone!

First, I'm not as tech savy as all of you, and I landed here trying to fix what it seems to be the same issue.

Thanks for all the advice above. My HP Stream has only a 29.1 GB hard drive, and 24.1 GB used. Microsoft are you kidding me? Why would I buy a system where the entire hard drive is already allocated for who knows what. This explains the why more people keep on switching to other products all together, because this is a joke. With an apple system, even if you have the same issues, you don't see this outrageous sizes. While analyzing the storage found out that already 13.8 GB had been reserved with MS files needed to run properly. Really? You need that much?

Out of those 11.8 GB are must have files (Supposedly), then there is another 1.20 GB of virtual memory which won't let me delete. I'm about to cut my losses and throw this crap to the trash. I mean, I have never saved any files, not even a photo or a song, I mean nothing. Everything in this crap has been on it from factory, and basically is just updates after updates. We don't use this laptop because we run our iMacs, however the wife bought it as a cheap solution to use when on the road or maybe as something to use for school or something, and OMG, we can't even use it because there is no free space or enough free space to do anything. When already 24.1 GB out of 29.1 GB are already (Supposedly) in use by whatever it is. UGH! 

I will try the recommendations here and if after this crap still the same, I will never buy a MS product again, and that's how you loos customers morons. I already had left you once, and this laptop was a purchase the wife did without telling me, so now I'm stocked. Because if it would've been up to me, never I would've bought another crappy PC that runs MS Windows anything on it.

Friday, May 11, 2018 9:10 PM

By the way I have ran a CCleaner already and nothing and now I'm scheduling a chkdsk C:/f/v/x start up and I will see if this works.

Friday, May 11, 2018 9:21 PM

I ran the command prom restart under administrator with chkdsk C:/f/v/x and it only brought it down from 24.1 GB used to 22GB and within seconds already back up to 23GB. WTF? Let me try everything else you guys have discussed here about indexed files, however something tells me the problem will be there at the end, after all, it is a MS product, UGH!

Friday, August 24, 2018 4:49 PM

Thank you! This solved my problem (97 gig file!).  Looked to be a printer driver logging that was the culprit.  After rebuild the file is only 8mb.  I can live with that.  Thanks again.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018 7:34 AM

Thank you! Your pragmatic solutions worked for me. 

Thursday, October 24, 2019 3:59 PM

The answer is for MS to fix this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a client who suffered this on an old machine and at the time ( years ago) I switched the location to another partition.

Now, she has a 1 tb machine ( no partition ) and the edb ate up 468 gigs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So luckily she noticed that her free space was down to 30 gigs and called me and I stopped the service,  deleted the file and restarted the Service   grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I wish they could be sued !

Absurd that they won't fix this

eg make a user box with a max file size setting !!!!