Disabling Spotlight
Launch Terminal and type the following: sudo nano /etc/hostconfig
Navigate using the arrow keys down the following entry: SPOTLIGHT=-YES-
Change SPOTLIGHT=-YES- to SPOTLIGHT=-NO-
Save /etc/hostconfig by hitting Control-O and the return key, next hit Control-X to exit the nano editor
Next, you’ll want to disable the index by typing the following in the Terminal:
mdutil -i off /
And to erase the current Spotlight index, type: mdutil -E /
That’s pretty much it, on your next reboot, Spotlight will be completely disabled.
Re-Enable Spotlight
If you want to enable Spotlight again, follow the same steps as above, but change SPOTLIGHT=-NO- to SPOTLIGHT=-YES-
and then type mdutil -i on / in the Terminal
Reboot, and Spotlight is back as usual