NTFS so SLOW - Painfully slow! Any ideas on a fix?

[ME]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Hi All,

I have been having this problem for ages now, and no-one seems to be
able to figure out what is causing the problem.

Trying to get a directory listing on my NTFS partitions is slow.
Extremely slow. How slow? It takes ~3 times as long to scan an NTFS
directory with 50 files in it, than it does to scan a FAT32 directory
with 5000 files in it.

Even scanning a directory that only has directories in it is slow.

Trying to copy large numbers of files between NTFS partitions takes
forever, as it pauses for minutes at a time.

This happens even after a fresh install of Windows.

I've turned off last access date, but this didn't help to any
noticeable degree.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

Any tweaks I could try?

 

[dl]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Youve installed/updated mobo chipset drivers, maybe bios?
Run Diskcleanup,Defragged,scandisk?
Checked that your hd controlers are not operating in reduced mode?
By Directory listing I'm assuming you mean via IE
What is the spec of the pc?

<me@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:eu0uh1prn2hvdagpclviumtecau8il7aih@4ax.com...
> Hi All,
>
> I have been having this problem for ages now, and no-one seems to be
> able to figure out what is causing the problem.
>
> Trying to get a directory listing on my NTFS partitions is slow.
> Extremely slow. How slow? It takes ~3 times as long to scan an NTFS
> directory with 50 files in it, than it does to scan a FAT32 directory
> with 5000 files in it.
>
> Even scanning a directory that only has directories in it is slow.
>
> Trying to copy large numbers of files between NTFS partitions takes
> forever, as it pauses for minutes at a time.
>
> This happens even after a fresh install of Windows.
>
> I've turned off last access date, but this didn't help to any
> noticeable degree.
>
> Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?
>
> Any tweaks I could try?
>
>

 

[ME]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 23:10:57 +0100, "DL" <dl@spoofmail> wrote:

>Youve installed/updated mobo chipset drivers, maybe bios?

Yup. Running the latest of these. Was doing it with previous versions
as well.

>Run Diskcleanup,Defragged,scandisk?

Yes. It's doing it on freshly formatted drives with files just
written.

>Checked that your hd controlers are not operating in reduced mode?

All controllers are running in UDMA mode

>By Directory listing I'm assuming you mean via IE

Yes ... and if a program opens a file requestor, it is slow.

>What is the spec of the pc?

AMD 2100+ (overclocked to 2700+, but still does it when not
overclocked), 512MB of RAM (Still did it when I had 1Gig), epox 8rda+
motherboard.

This happens on all NTFS partitions, and I have had now 4 different
hard drives from 3 different manufacturers.

I was thinking if it was a hardware problem, it would be affecting
FAT32 partitions as well.

 

[dl]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

Does Task Mngr, Performance show anything unusual, whilst in Explorer?

<me@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:9m70i191rk58ba9bc48hfvng5i7nnkgsqs@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 23:10:57 +0100, "DL" <dl@spoofmail> wrote:
>
> >Youve installed/updated mobo chipset drivers, maybe bios?
>
> Yup. Running the latest of these. Was doing it with previous versions
> as well.
>
> >Run Diskcleanup,Defragged,scandisk?
>
> Yes. It's doing it on freshly formatted drives with files just
> written.
>
> >Checked that your hd controlers are not operating in reduced mode?
>
> All controllers are running in UDMA mode
>
> >By Directory listing I'm assuming you mean via IE
>
> Yes ... and if a program opens a file requestor, it is slow.
>
> >What is the spec of the pc?
>
> AMD 2100+ (overclocked to 2700+, but still does it when not
> overclocked), 512MB of RAM (Still did it when I had 1Gig), epox 8rda+
> motherboard.
>
> This happens on all NTFS partitions, and I have had now 4 different
> hard drives from 3 different manufacturers.
>
> I was thinking if it was a hardware problem, it would be affecting
> FAT32 partitions as well.

 

[ME]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 14:12:39 +0100, "DL" <dl@spoofmail> wrote:

>Does Task Mngr, Performance show anything unusual, whilst in Explorer?

Not really. CPU usage doesn't go up, and continues to hover between 0
and 5%

 

[dl]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win2000.file_system (More info?)

At the mo. the only other thing I can think of is to use something like
msconfig, and disable all none MS start ups. Then test again.
Leastways that ought to rule out any start up apps, also does the same thing
happen in Safe mode?

<me@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:dbs2i1plp2nt55l3orgcarjeuqrjlt50qt@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 14:12:39 +0100, "DL" <dl@spoofmail> wrote:
>
> >Does Task Mngr, Performance show anything unusual, whilst in Explorer?
>
> Not really. CPU usage doesn't go up, and continues to hover between 0
> and 5%