Strange Issue After Crash

[Tyke666]

Hi all. Thanks for the awesome product!
I have one issue that may or may not be Everything related.
My new laptop is running Windows 10 Pro 21H2 (Build 19044.1466). Occasionally - and only on shutdown, I get a BSOD (CLOCK-WATCHDOG-TIMEOUT) or it just hangs on shutdown till I force it to turn off.
The peculiar thing is the Everything display after I restart the system. The index looks fine just before the BSOD and reports the correct files but after the crash I get the following:
430,317 consecutive entries of file !CheckMinSpec.dll (with a path of c:\Everquest\) followed by:
118,665 consecutive entries of folder !IMPORTANT-WIFI Drivers and Killer Removal (with a path of C:\Users\Username\Desktop\MSI Drivers\
... and no other entries.
I can restore the index using /reindex and /restart commands. The only thing I can see is that both entries start with "!". But I have lots of folders/files that do that (I use it to force the filename to the top of a directory sort)

The machine doesn't crash every shutdown - just occasionally, but the Everything index always has the above entries only. I am not sure if the number of each entry is the exact same each time so I have no idea if the issue with the index is because of the crash, or if it is causing the crash. Like I say, it's the only thing I have noticed that seems odd so I am clutching at straws.

[void]

This issue occurs when the Everything database is corrupt.

More specifically it occurs when the Everything database is filled with zeroes.
There might be an issue with your storage device. (please check the SMART data for your hard drives)
It's more likely to be an issue caused by the BSOD and buffers not being flushed to disk.

Please try deleting your Everything.db (forcing Everything to rebuild your indexes):

• Please make sure Everything is not running (File -> Exit)
• In Windows Explorer, type in the following address and press ENTER:
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\Everything
• Delete your Everything.db
• Restart Everything.

As you have found, you can also use /reindex


To prevent this issue in the future, please try storing your Everything.db on another drive.

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Indexes tab on the left.
• To the right of Database location, click Browse.
• Select a folder on another drive.

Does the issue persist?

[hamid56]

Tyke666 for completing guidance of David
the best and easy software for testing smart of a HDD is Crystaldiskinfo and available at below link
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
portable version is also available.if your color of HDD show as yellow or red your HDD may be have bad sectors and need further software.
the most important part of computer is HDD because all data is located there and every person need software like Crystaldiskinfo for predicting failure of HDD before a real and hard crash of HDD.

[Tyke666]

Many thanks for the prompt reply.
I will follow the steps mentioned should I get another issue. All I have done at the moment is to run Everything from Admin prompt instead of installing the service - which I had before. I expect the service is there to avoid the UAC popup when loading at startup so not likely to be an issue.

Unfortunately, with the machine being a laptop, I only have one drive installed although it has the space for a second SSD so I might invest in one later. I don't know if partitioning the drive and using a different partition would make any difference so I have avoided it. These laptop drives come with about 4 hidden partitions (recovery etc) and 1 c: drive that's user accessible, so probably not worth messing with.

The S.M.A.R.T. info from the disk says its fine. I would expect that really. I need to track down the BSOD but I expect it's a duff driver somewhere along the line.

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1297a will now flush file buffers to disk when saving settings and the database.

This should help prevent the issue.

Please let me know if the issue occurs with this version.

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1299a will no longer flush file buffers by default.



I have added a flush_file_buffers ini setting to always flush file buffers to disk when closing a file.
This might help users who find their configuration file or Everything database filled with NULs after a system crash or Windows update.

To enable flushing of file buffers to disk when closing files:

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /flush_file_buffers=1
• If successful, flush_file_buffers=1 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1301a will now perform a CRC check on the database.

This should help detect any write errors or unflushed disk caches.

Enabling flush_file_buffers is no longer recommended for this version and later versions.