Hard Drive Read Issues - Any Ideas?

[trowand]

I think I posted this issue before years ago with my previous build but this new high end build is doing the same thing. I've got two very annoying issues regarding hard drive read speeds and I don't know if they're a WinXP setting or a HDD/BIOS setting that I need to change.

#1 - Almost anytime I do anything that takes me away from/off the desktop, like open a folder or play a game, when I close the app and go back to my desktop, all of my icons are the default "I don't know what program to associate this file with" icon for a few seconds and then they slowly refresh to the proper icon. It's annoying.

#2 - I take TONS of digital pictures thus have about When I open my "My Pictures" It takes forever for the folder/thumbnails to show up. I have 82GB worth of pics and 180 folders but only half of them are shown on the screen when I open it. I have to scroll down to see the rest.

[TwoRails]

With Win 98 you could easily set the file directory cache size, but I can't find a "switch" in XP to do it. Use at your own risk, but I found the below when I Googled. Maybe it'll help:

http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/931/

Icon cache:

http://windowswideopen.com/blog/2008/01/29/how_do_i_increase_the_shell_icon_cache_from_windows_xp_-_iconcachedb/

There's lots more. I used the search phrase:

"XP directory size cache"

[bailey]

the first thing that comes to me is how do you have the partitions set up.

the OS and its needed files should be on a small one and the pictures should be divided up some. I am thinking that unless it is partitioned some, the os has to search a lot of disk space to find the files it needs to do the differant things you want.
I am not sure that doing this will cure all your problems, but it sure has to help shorten up the search timming some.

[not important]

You could transfer the pics to an external HDD, Thumb drive or optical disc.

[trowand]

Yeah, I might try those Registry mods that Two Rails posted. Bailey, I DO NOT have the OS on its own seperate partition (But I think I might do that next time). I do have the pics backed up on an external drive but I still choose to keep them one my main PC also. I guess I'll minimize the number of folders by organizing them into "year" folders. I've got pics from 2003 to current in there so I'll divide them up into folders by year which will drastically reduce the number of folders on the screen. The desktop icon refresh thing really bothers me though. Even my crappy old work Dell laptop doesn't do that and I've easily got three times as many icons and shortcuts on that desktop.