Hard drive access wierdness

[themisfit610]

Hey everyone.

So I've got 5 hard drives. Internals are an 80 GB IDE, and 3 250GB SATAs.

The external is a 500GB eSata.

One of my drives (one of the internal 250s) takes a very long time to respond (and I can hear a lot of drive access) when I try to open any folder in the drive's root. It ONLY Happens through windows explorer. Through a "Save As" or "Open" dialog, or through the network it's instantaneous.

The problem only happens when opening a folder in the root, and after it happens performance is snappy. If I close the window, and access a folder in the root again within 20 seconds or so, I have no problems. Any more than this, and it's slow again.

Ideas?? I'm SURE it's not a hardware problem as it's perfect through another access method. I tested the drive just to be safe, and it's golden.

~MiSfit

 

[montag451]

Could it be your pagefile is on that drive?
Try swapping it over to another drive temporarily see if that makes any difference.

 

[themisfit610]

Nope, my page file is on my 80GB IDE...

 

[JustaGeek]

Run the test utility on that drive, like Seatools from Seagate or equivalent.

Or... defragment and run the "chkdsk" in Windows.

BTW, did you try cleaning your "prefetch" folder lately? I would do it after defragmenting the drive.

 

[themisfit610]

Did all that, except cleaning the prefetc folder.. Not sure what you're referring to.

 

[JustaGeek]

Windows creates a map of your hard drive in form of files, for quick access. It might be getting conflicting information if the file has been moved, e.g. during defragmentation.

There is also a main file there called "layout" - it will appear later, when all the individual .pf files have been created. Deleting all these files will "force" the OS to find these files on the HD's again, and map their new locations.

It is located in C:\Windows\Prefetch. Deletion of all these files will make you initial boot slower, but after using the computer for a day or two it will all be rebuilt.

I do not know if that will fix your problem, but it is worth a try.

Perhaps you should also check if your PS is not maxed-out, and all the connectors are firmly seated.

Hope this helps.

 

[themisfit610]

PSU isn't close to being maxed out. I had the issue with my old Antec 450W, and it still happens with my Corsair 520.

Keep in mind, it's definitely a software issue because alternate methods of access (network, or open / save as dialogs) work perfectly. It's just stupid explorer.exe...

I'll try killing prefetch tho.

~MiSfit