long time to first browse a external drive huge folder (10s)

Michael REMY · Post by *Michael REMY » 2010-12-12, 10:29 UTC

hi !

i have a external hard drive (WD 1b passport).
it contains a folder at root partition (ntfs formated).
This folder contains more than 6000 files.
The first time (first total commander browse action by click on letter drive and double click on folder) i tried to open it for display the content take a long long long time.

i don't know why...
when i test the same process with windows explorer (win7 x64), it is real-time.
i check the partition structure (it's ok), defragmented it (ok too).

the second time is real time (i guess there is a cache...)
If i wait a several time (i can't define how much, maybe one hour), the re-browse process retake a long time to browse.

so, it a bug or a misunderstood setting of my own ?

thanks for help

Mike

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2010-12-12, 10:42 UTC

I think Explorer fills list during reading but TC firstly reads entire contents and then displays it. Second time same contents is read from cache so it is faster.

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2010-12-13, 16:15 UTC

Sounds like a very fragmented directory. Try to defragment the drive.

Michael REMY · Post by *Michael REMY » 2010-12-13, 16:27 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:Sounds like a very fragmented directory. Try to defragment the drive.

already done!

Phr3d · Post by *Phr3d » 2010-12-14, 07:44 UTC

My experience is that there seems to be a limit to how many file and directory entries, i.e., my network directories with less than 1500 files and directories are nice and quick to manipulate (move,delete,rename).

1500-2500, not so nice, but liveable.

2500-3000 (varies) or above, whoops, we exceeded something, same with my external USBs. Not at all unusual for a rename to take over 30 seconds to complete task and re-display the directory contents.

Guess I've never believed there was a solution to this, it's just plain number of entries, and too darned many, but if win does-in-fact open and manipulate 'em faster (I wouldn't know, haven't used my computer since win95, lol) then I would appreciate a speed increase here.

Didn't the 16-bit ver reach a limit-of-sorts and slow to a crawl when we were first 'toopid enough to have directories that exceeded ~500 entries? Can't trust this memory.

MVV · Post by *MVV » 2010-12-14, 07:53 UTC

Maybe internal array gets full and needs some time for relocation?

BTW just now I tried to enter Windows7\winsxs folder - TC did it in 3 seconds (~8k items). Note that it wasn't in any cache since I'm under WinXP now.

Michael REMY · Post by *Michael REMY » 2010-12-14, 08:20 UTC

MVV wrote:
BTW just now I tried to enter Windows7\winsxs folder - TC did it in 3 seconds (~8k items). Note that it wasn't in any cache since I'm under WinXP now.

Try it on external drive USB2, and your 8s will become 10 or more.

Michael REMY · Post by *Michael REMY » 2011-11-21, 13:06 UTC

hi !

i came back on this point because something is strange.

my first original external drive is a WD mypasseport (2.5' 5200 rpm and 8MB cache).
and i just copy the data into another disk (external usb too) on a WD (3.5 7200 rpm and 64MB cache).

The first one (low one) takes more than 10s to display the listing of more 7000 files whereas the second disk take less than 3s.
Also, the same directory on a internal hard drive takes less than 1s now.

So, i can conclude this (the long time to list the files) is not a total commander restricton problem but an usb (or hard drive) feature problem.

have a good day

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2011-11-21, 14:28 UTC

That's possible, Windows has to read all the names via USB first. But you should check whether the drive is fragmented, this can also cause a big slowdown.