Spinning drives made partial-name search slow enough to abandon. NVMe changed that — same query returns before you finish typing. Hardware matters, but not alone.
NTFS master file table lets tools build sorted filename indexes without walking every folder per query. Fast storage plus smart indexing equals the instant feel.
First index vs steady state
Initial metadata read on a full drive still takes time. SSDs shorten it. Incremental updates are cheap — that's when marketing about instant search becomes true.
Network drives
Local NVMe feels telepathic. NAS over Wi-Fi feels like 2012. I index local volumes aggressively, hit network paths only when files clearly live on the server.
See also: Real-time indexing vs. scheduled scans, Search across multiple drives without the lag.