Find Fast "debris"
Q Some files are always present in my root directory. They are ffastun.ffa, ffastun.ffl, ffastun.ffo and ffastun0.ffx. I wonder what those files are for and can I delete them without affecting my operating system? û Koi Yin Lo A These files are usually hidden, and they belong to a document indexing utility called Find Fast, which is included with Microsoft Office (see "Find fast or find slow?", March 98 p149). Find Fast integrates with the Find Fast Control Panel in Windows 95 to create an index of all the Office documents on your hard drive, so that you can find them quickly when you need them. You can search the Find Fast index file for specific words, phrases, or document properties by choosing FileûOpen in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access, or by choosing ToolsûFind Items in Outlook. When Find Fast is installed, it automatically starts indexing every Office document it can find on your hard disk. If your entire disk is scanned and indexed, Find Fast places all its index files in the root directory. All Find Fast index files usually begin with "ffastun" and have various extensions according to the fileÆs function. Unless you frequently work with many long documents, these files wonÆt use up too much disk space. They generally occupy space equivalent to 7 per cent of the text component of each indexed document, or approximately 1û3 per cent of a documentÆs total size. Find Fast also generates several other files with names similar to: ___ofidx.ffa, ___ofidx.ffl, and ___ofidx.0. File Extension File Description .ffx Index file .ffl Document list .ffa Status file .ffo Cache of document properties such as Author or Title ItÆs a good idea to avoid working directly with Find FastÆs files, but you can safely delete them if you arenÆt currently using, or donÆt intend to use, Find Fast. The best way to do this is through the Find Fast Control Panel. Choose StartûSettingsûControl Panel and doubleûclick Find Fast. In the Find Fast window, click on your hard drive, then choose Delete Index from the Index menu. Reboot Windows and youÆre done. û Belinda Taylor
Category: word processing
Issue: May 1998