Hddb: Search Done Quickly

Hddb

Hddb

Hddb is another option for those seeking to have a lightweight search utility. Hddb stands for Hard disk database and similar to Locate32 in that it builds a database and uses it to present results. The program interface is similar to Everything however.

At first start a database is built and this takes seconds only. There is an option to rebuild the database any time and also to clean it as if to start over. Folders can be set to be ignored by Hddb by adding an empty file called _hddbignore in them. In Tools —> Options —> Database there is an option to exclude files by name. The search itself supports searching paths (use \ to start a search) and using wild cards. Probably the most notable feature of Hddb is the Named Searches accessed via the Search menu. This narrows down the search to file, folder, picture, executable, office, book, video, audio, archive, code or text formats. For example a search for “@video milan” returns only video files which have milan in their title. These can be configured to add or include other file types and extensions.

Hddb has options to show folder sizes and to show file info via a tool tip, see the Results List tab of the program options to enable these features.

The program remembers recent searches. The non portable version of the program can add itself to the system’s right click context menu. Hddb is available in exe and portable versions for both 32 and 64 bit machines.

Comments

2 responses to “Hddb: Search Done Quickly”

  1. smaragdus Avatar
    smaragdus

    Some time ago at Hddb’s site it was stated that Hddb was based on Everything. However later this acknowledgement has been removed. It is not clear on which version of Everything Hddb is based. It offers some new features mainly in the visual department- the Ribbon GUI (which I dislike and which, thank goodness, can be disabled), while it removes some native Everything features like re-building the database on start-up. I do not see any advantages of Hddb over Everything (which has finally been updated to a new stable version- 1.3.4.686), in fact I have had experienced a problem using Hddb- when I close Everything to tray and then bring it back, the previous search results have been cleared, while the same behaviour doesn’t work with Hddb (although I have disabled ‘Remember recent searches’, ‘Remember recent opened files’, ‘Remember recent search locations’)- the last search entry appears in the search bar so I have to press ‘Esc’ key to clear the search bar and the results, it is just one click more, but it is unhandy for me.

  2. R G Avatar
    R G

    Thanks for the comment. Hddb is good in my opinion but overall Everything is probably the best around these days.

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