Disabling indexing for specific drives may do the job, (There is no harm in trying) however most users find it has to be turned off completely.
One thing you could try is to do a repair of Vista, as some users have reported that this solved the problem. (Not guaranteed though)

You can download the search engine that is used in Vista for use on XP if you like it better. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...&DisplayLang=en

Hi Bernie, Windows 7 works properly

Hope this helps

Bill