Indexed files disappear

Sleeperdoc,

Few "Microsoft" posters follow up on their posts so you are unlikely to get any response to your subsequent updates.  "Microsoft" posters just seem to do a keyword search of questions and post whatever comes up whether it is useful or not.

1  The Fixit to which you were given a link is an old [2012] version of the built-in troubleshooter that you have already tried so it won't help you.  {Control panel, [View by - Small icons, if necessary], Troubleshooting, View all, Search & indexing}

2  I once saw a recommendation to choose a different location for the index.  There was no justification given for this recommendation but it would not hurt to try it since you are going to want to rebuild the index again anyway after steps 3 & 4 below. 

3  Did you use the "Norton removal tool" to ensure that there were no traces of their product left?  If not then you'll need to go to their website to get a copy & you will need to get a copy of the corresponding removal tool for your new antimalware application.  The sequence of tasks must be:  uninstall the new antimalware application, run the new antimalware application's removal tool, run the Norton removal tool, reinstall the new antimalware application.  I'm sorry to have to suggest such an awkward & time-consuming set of tasks but traces left behind by antimalware applications can cause bizarre symptoms that defy fault-identification so doing all this cleaning up is the only way to ensure they are not to blame  [in my case, my failure to run the Norton removal tool only demonstrated itself months afterwards when its remnants repeatedly interrupted copying large files across my network].  Rebuild the index when all this has been completed.

4  Do you get the same symptoms in all user accounts or just one?  If you have not tried this then I really do recommend doing so even if it means creating a new Admin-level user account just for this test [having a spare password-protected Admin-level account is always useful as a system reliability precaution anyway].  For this test to be useful, you will need to give the new user account access to your indexed folders and then rebuild the index whilst still logged in to the new account.

5  Does the indexing service ["Windows search" service] running correctly after you have restarted the service and set it to Automatic (Delayed start) in Task manager, Services, Services...?  Does it then survive rebooting & complete shutdowns?  Is there any common factor for the period before failures?  I know you have referred to this already but I could not make out any of these details from what you wrote.

6  Have you run SFC /scannow and have you scanned your drives for errors?  I ask this just for completeness but, in all honesty, I do not expect either of these steps to help so running these checks is really just to allow you to confirm that they yielded no useful information.

7  Use Windows explorer to check your access permissions on all the Included locations.  Are all your files generated by & stored on this computer or are any copied across from a networked computer?  I ask this only because I have recently had an indexing-search problem that turned out to be a confused & partially-invalid set of security permissions on many folders.  I went to the top-level documents folders and set a common set of ownership and access settings for the whole lot before rebuilding the index yet again.  After this, indexing-search worked correctly and has continued to do so ever since even after repeated syncing across my network.

8  After every reboot or shutdown-restart, check the search service & indexing options and do a test search [use Windows explorer searching for the test].  Check the Properties of each drive to make sure that you have not lost the setting Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties.  Look through your Event viewer logs for the relevant times.  Compare the entries that are shown before you discover a search service failure with the entries that appear normally.  This can take a long time but it is only by identifying the differences that Event viewer entries can help you to fix things.

9  I think that, as this thread is becoming relatively old & has so many posts already, few people will bother to read about your problem [I'm afraid that's how this forum often works].  I strongly recommend that you create a new question after completing the steps I have suggested.  {Just use this current thread for any clarification you want about the steps I have suggested}

9.1  Call your new question Search service not running, keeps stopping - Event viewer logs posted

9.2  In your new question, describe all the symptoms and list all the checks you have done [including those I have suggested]. 

9.3  Describe the results of your work comparing Event viewer entries [para 8 above] and any conclusions you were able to reach.  In addition to this, extract logs for a period that spans good behaviour and a failure [don't include "months" worth of them, just include enough to capture that change from good to bad].  Post the logs in OneDrive / SkyDrive or similar and put a link to them in your new question.

9.4  Explain any other recent changes to the computer such as any attempted upgrade to Windows 10. 

9.5  Post a link to your new question here in this thread so that anybody who does come here to help will be able to click straight across to your new thread.

All the best,

Denis

Well, the index disappeared again. I ran the FIXIT file, the index seemed to be fixed for a while, but than after about a week I searched for a file just to discover the index service was not running. I compiled the Index Search Warnings and Errors Event Log for the past few months, and I wonder whether it may help and how I may pass it to you.

Thanks

Well, the index disappeared again. I ran the FIXIT file, the index seemed to be fixed for a while, but than after about a week I searched for a file just to discover the index service was not running. I compiled the Index Search Warnings and Errors Event Log for the past few months, and I wonder whether it may help and how I may pass it to you.

Thanks

Hello, Mr. Chettri, and thank you.

I am logged in as the administrator. The problem started a few months ago when I had to reinstall Windows 7 Home Premium from scratch because of unindentifiable (at the time) problem causing Windows not accessing DVD drive and hanging on shutdown. In retrospect, both behaviors were caused by some update of Symantec Internet Security, since they recurred after reinstall of Windows, and stopped immediately after Symantec IS was removed and replaced by a competitor Internet Security solution.

Anyway, for now after rebuilding the index for the fifth time it has been stable for a week now. I will keep the FixIt you sent me and if the index disappears again will try it and report back.

Hi,

Welcome to Microsoft Community. Sorry for the delay in replying. Could you please provide us some additional information?

Since when are you facing the issue? Have you made any recent software or hardware changes on the computer? Are you logged in as the administrator?

Please run the FIXITand check if it helps.

Additional information:

Change advanced indexing options 

Improve Windows searches using the index: frequently asked questions 

Hope it helps and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help.