Gotta admit I'm stuck on this one.

[Dr. V]

i was gonna say to make sure that no useless processes are running...

this is odd, i wanna see the solution for this.

[Computer-Ed]

I know it is driving you nuts but it is kind of funny that it is in XP and not Vista. Wonder if this is a sign from above

[Dread]

Indexing Service on?
Archiving set for that folder?
Is that folder(s) compressed?

Win XP defaults on the indexing and archiving,
may want to check those specifically.

Right-click on folder(s) in question, select
properties, then advanced button.

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Is this a new problem?

It almost sounds like you have some program running in the background thats causing your system to slow down. Is this on a fresh install of XP or a stale one?

Hey Joe....this has been going on ever since I installed WinXP. This is a fairly recent install cause I had to replace a HDD last week. Thing is, it was going on with the install before this one too.

Originally Posted by Dread

Indexing Service on?
Archiving set for that folder?
Is that folder(s) compressed?

Win XP defaults on the indexing and archiving,
may want to check those specifically.

Right-click on folder(s) in question, select
properties, then advanced button.

Indexing is turned off and there's no compression going on.

I've checked/done all the suggestions here, still having the issue.

And I do find it a tad ironic that it does this in XP but not Vista.

[Panda Man]

I'd take a stab at it being it a corrupt/very bloated profile (your windoze profile, not you :P ) or explorer is damaged. Try reinstalling explorer from the cd, and if you need to back up your profile, delete it, make a new one and transfer the parts you need back over there (some of the application data, perhaps the desktop folder, etc. etc. ).

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by Panda Man

I'd take a stab at it being it a corrupt/very bloated profile (your windoze profile, not you :P ) or explorer is damaged. Try reinstalling explorer from the cd, and if you need to back up your profile, delete it, make a new one and transfer the parts you need back over there (some of the application data, perhaps the desktop folder, etc. etc. ).

If I'm going to go through the trouble of replacing my profile, I'll go ahead and reinstall the OS.

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

If I'm going to go through the trouble of replacing my profile, I'll go ahead and reinstall the OS.

lol go for it, replacing the profile is faster and not that hard though. Just try reinstalling explorer, I'm 42.36% sure it will work :P

[Quakindude]

Originally Posted by Panda Man

lol go for it, replacing the profile is faster and not that hard though. Just try reinstalling explorer, I'm 42.36% sure it will work :P

You just don't realize how much stuff I have backed up for this profile.

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

You just don't realize how much stuff I have backed up for this profile.

Say what is this "backing up" nonsense? You think we got to the moon by backing up!?

<serious> Just go to documents and settings, and copy/paste the profile so that you have "Smurf" and "Copy of Smurf" or whatever your profile is :P Now just copy the necessary files into your new profile, I've never taken more than 5 minutes in this process </serious>

[Lead Head]

Originally Posted by Quakindude

You just don't realize how much stuff I have backed up for this profile.

Is it only slow on that profile? If its normal on any of the others, that would rule out explorer being corrupt, since explorer is loaded from the same place all the time.

EDIT: Another thing, is it possible your drives are in PIO mode, or is that an IDE only thing?