Would greatly appreciate any advice. I am engaged in a major report whereby I need to access old (5-10 years) files on my computer and/or from an external hard drive by means of key words or phrases. Spotlight is hit or miss. EasyFind is reasonably good but extremely slow and also hit or miss. HoudaSpot lags way behind. Can anyone direct me to a better text search app where files with key words will be identified from the desktop?

Some background info:
* I work on OS 10.4.11.
* All of the files to be accessed are QuarkXpress 6.5.2.
* My computer is clean, my files are clean, I have all necessary fonts, all files open without issues, nothing is corrupt, I have tons of RAM space, more memory than I know what to do with, and the most number of applications I ever have open at one time is 3 or 4: XPress, Safari, Acrobat, and/or Preview.
* The text searches are for relatively unique words; for example "res judicata," "malfeasance," "fruit of the poisonous tree."
* I know how to use Boolean and wild card searches. These don't do for me what they should.

HELP!!! Please. Thank you.