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?

– 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 File–Open in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access, or by choosing Tools–Find 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 file’s function. Unless you frequently work with many long documents, these files won’t 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 1–3 per cent of a document’s 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

 

It’s a good idea to avoid working directly with Find Fast’s files, but you can safely delete them if you aren’t currently using, or don’t intend to use, Find Fast. The best way to do this is through the Find Fast Control Panel. Choose Start–Settings–Control Panel and double–click Find Fast. In the Find Fast window, click on your hard drive, then choose Delete Index from the Index menu. Reboot Windows and you’re done.

– Belinda Taylor


Category: word processing
Issue: May 1998

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