NTFS Direct File Find (NDFF) command-line utility

http://ndff.hotbox.ru/en/index.html

NDFF is command-line utility that performs extra fast file searching on
local NTFS partition. The main advantage over any other file searching
tool currently available (including the one found in Windows Explorer)
that it looks for file directly in MFT, which is system data table of
NTFS. This approach lets avoid reading all the directories contained on
the volume, thus speeding up the operation by many times. For example,
my 30 GB large partition full of files and directories is scanned in
less than 10 seconds, while it takes several minutes to scan it in
traditional way.

The main disadvantage of the approach is that the tool cannot look for
the file in directory subtree. NTFS partition is the only scope
understood by it. Of course, the utility could have filtered out the
files that are not located in subtree of interest, but this did not
decrease the time to scan the scope wanted. In other words, file search
time depends only on number of files located on partition, and cannot be
decreased by any hint from user.

This makes the utility useful for searching the files that user does not
have an idea where they could have been placed of. On the other hand, it
is not efficient to find the files that are known to be located in a
dozen or two of subdirectories.

+ It can look for a file by its name expressed either exactly or by
mask / regular expression, either in case-sensitive manner or not.
+ It can list the files found including full path, partition letter,
MFT ID, real and allocated size of the files, and NTFS namespace.
+ It is also possible to specify drive letter of the partition,
MFT ID range and NTFS namespace to search.
+ Search result can be limited to files or directories only, and
filtered by real and allocated file size.
+ Files survived after deletion can also be found.
+ Hardlinks and junction points are supported.

--
Cheers,
Sietse Fliege

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 05:36:31 +0100, "Sietse Fliege"
<change_.invalid_to_.nl@sf.slownet.invalid> wrote:

I tried to go to this site but it keeps routing me to a "404" site. Do
you have another site or a way around this problem where I can
download this program?

Thanks.

In message <hl9mm2l8n67ne1h3177c56k76k42std5lh@4ax.com> Snuffy
<Snuffy@WhiskeyJug.com> wrote:

FWIW, I was able to download the exes from
http://ndff.hotbox.ru/bin/0.9.6/dl.en.html

I'd be happy to email them if you're still having problems.

--
Prayer has no place in the public schools, just like facts
have no place in organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers

Snuffy wrote:
The site has been temporarily down today.
Was unavailable to me one hour ago, is okay right now.
If it works for you now, maybe save pages to the hd like:
Documentation On Commandline Options
http://ndff.hotbox.ru/en/options.html
Frequently asked questions
http://ndff.hotbox.ru/en/faq.html

--
Cheers,
Sietse Fliege

In message <456b4115$0$5020$dbd4d001@news.wanadoo.nl> "Sietse Fliege"
<change_.invalid_to_.nl@sf.slownet.invalid> wrote:

Got 'em too...

--
Q. How many Microsoft technicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Three. Two to hold the ladder and one to hammer the bulb into a faucet.

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:14:23 GMT, DevilsPGD
<spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:

Let me try this URL first. Thanks for the offer, and I might take you
up on it.

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:48:20 +0100, "Sietse Fliege"
<change_.invalid_to_.nl@sf.slownet.invalid> wrote:

Ok, good idea, and Thanks.

In message <12q1n29113aqvlubim3snlemupcfqop9h6@4ax.com> Snuffy
<Snuffy@WhiskeyJug.com> wrote:

I had the opportunity to use it a couple times in the past couple days
(Once for fun, twice for profit) -- It's damn fast, and a potential
life-saver on one of my servers which has extremely huge and complex
directory structures, but doesn't tend to reuse filenames.

Very cool.

--
Jack: So what's your impression of Alar?
Teal'C: That he is concealing something.
Jack: Like what?
Teal'C: I am unsure - he is concealing it.

On 27 Nov 2006, Sietse Fliege
<change_.invalid_to_.nl@sf.slownet.invalid> wrote:

Looks interesting.

I put NDFF.EXE in the root directory of C on my XP Pro/SP2.
But it doesn't work for me when I use either

C:\ndff *.xls
c:\ndff *.xls -d c: -ss

I have 41 XLS type files on C but this NDFF command finds none.
Guess I must be doing something wrong.

The message I get is:

Total filerecords to scan: 16
Scanned 5 filerecord(s) in 0.01 s.
Found 0 file(s), 0 directory(ies), 0 alternate path(s).

Franklin wrote:

Very strange and too bad.
It should find probably many tens of thousands of filerecords to scan.

I can't believe that you would ever try this on a non-NTFS drive and
find it quite unlikely that rights (administration rights or whatever)
are involved.

So, I have no clue whatsoever, I'm sorry Franklin.

--
Cheers,
Sietse Fliege

"Sietse Fliege" <change_.invalid_to_.nl@sf.slownet.invalid> wrote in message
news:45738ebc$0$75574$dbd45001@news.wanadoo.nl...
It certainly doesn't work on non-NTFS drives, but administrative rights
*are* required. I don't run as administrator and it fails.

Jeff Miller wrote:

I see, thank you.
I didn't expect this and also this wasn't mentioned on the program's
homepage. Nor, apparently, does the program itself let you know.

--
Cheers,
Sietse Fliege

On 04 Dec 2006, Jeff Miller <j_e_f_f@foobox.com> wrote:


I am running this on a 20 GB NTFS partition and I am administrator.
However I still get that result.

Seems as if it may be scanning just the files in the root folder. Can I
force it to scan the folders?

BTW what does ndfftest.exe do?
From http://ndff.hotbox.ru/bin/0.9.6/dl.en.html

In message <Xns988FB16BAFE148FCE1@127.0.0.1> Franklin
<franksays@nomail.com> wrote:

It doesn't scan the root, or folders, it directly scans the file indexes
(which is path agnostic)

--
Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it.

On 05 Dec 2006, DevilsPGD <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:


When run NDFF and it fails to find anything then I get the meassage
below which mentions "filerecords to scan".

I figure something somwehere such as the MFT thinks there are only 16
records and (depending how many hidden and XP system files I leave
out) that is the number of files in my root folder.

And my root folder is where I run NDFF from.

Total filerecords to scan: 16
Scanned 5 filerecord(s) in 0.01 s.
Found 0 file(s), 0 directory(ies), 0 alternate path(s).