Long load time accessing new disk

[valdeEdius]

Whenever I plug in a new drive, windows explorer is able to open it up and show me files very quickly, TC, however, has a very noticeable delay switching between drives if the target new drive has not been accessed yet or for a very significant period of time. Anyone have any ideas how to alleviate this?

[ghisler(Author)]

That's very strange, I'm not seing any delays on Windows 7, 8.1 or 10. What windows version do you use?

[HolgerK]

2valdeEdius

Could it be that the external drive spins down, and needs to wake up every time you access the drive after a while.

"Configuration -> Settings... -> Refresh: No refresh for these drives:"
may help.

Or use a S.M.A.R.T-Info tool like CrystalDiskInfo to adjust the Advanced Power Managment(APM)=80h.

Regards
Holger

[valdeEdius]

I believe it is this refresh feature. As I mentioned, I don't think the drive itself is to blame because I can access it in Windows Explorer and will still get the refresh event in TC on first access - since this is most noticeable on my 4TB arrays this makes sense related to the delay I'm experiencing. I am using Win7.

I'll give it a few days with refresh disabled on my select drives and see if that fixes the behavior before posting again.

note: I formatted the entry for no refresh as this

Code: Select all

P:\,S:\,M:\

Is using a comma the right way to delineate entries? The tooltip didn't advise.[/code]

[HolgerK]

note: I formatted the entry for no refresh as this

Code: Select all

P:\,S:\,M:\

Is using a comma the right way to delineate entries? The tooltip didn't advise.[/code]

Simply list the drive letters without any delimiter:

Code: Select all

PSM

From Help F1 4.b wincmd.ini:

Noreread=AB\ Do not reread these drives; \ stands for 'Network Neighborhood', / for file system plugins, and a colon : for virtual folders like the desktop.
Noreread2=AB\ Do not reread these drives when closing and restarting Total Commander. If noreread2 is missing, the contents of noreread= will be used, which leads to the same behaviour as in TC versions older than 6.52. Example:
Noreread=ABC\ and Noreread2=AB\ : Don't auto-reread floppies, drive c and the net, but remember directories on C when closing and re-opening Total Commander.

The :\ from your code will also disable the refresh on network drives and virtual folders.

As I mentioned, I don't think the drive itself is to blame because I can access it in Windows Explorer and will still get the refresh

If this delay is related to power management and spin down of the drive spindle, you will also get a delay in Explorer if you open a sub-folder or trigger any action like copy, move, or open a file.
This is why i mentioned that you can change the power management of the drive and disable the standby mode (APM >= 80h).

Kind Regards
Holger

[ghisler(Author)]

2valdeEdius
Could you please answer my question about the Windows version?

[valdeEdius]

Further testing is in order before I really say for sure that this is solved, but preliminary tests make it seem this did the job.

As mentioned above, I am using Windows 7 - fully updated - 64bit.
My bar files are massive and extensive from years of continued development, however.

[valdeEdius]

As I mentioned, I don't think the drive itself is to blame because I can access it in Windows Explorer and will still get the refresh

If this delay is related to power management and spin down of the drive spindle, you will also get a delay in Explorer if you open a sub-folder or trigger any action like copy, move, or open a file.
This is why i mentioned that you can change the power management of the drive and disable the standby mode (APM >= 80h).

Kind Regards
Holger

But in my example I have already accessed the drive in Windows explorer. Maybe I even open some folders and copy something. This drive is active, yet still when I come to TC after TC hasn't accessed the drive for a significant amount of time there is the delay. (hopefully fixed by suggestions above).

[ghisler(Author)]

It could be related to the floppy disk check affecting the Surface Pro 3. In the soon to be released TC 8.52 beta, I have moved that check to a background thread. Please let me know if this fixes your problem too.

[valdeEdius]

It could be related to the floppy disk check affecting the Surface Pro 3. In the soon to be released TC 8.52 beta, I have moved that check to a background thread. Please let me know if this fixes your problem too.

I don't have a surface pro, though - but I will try out the beta since none of the computers I use contain floppy disks.

[ghisler(Author)]

Do you have some drives which are recognized as removable, e.g.
- connected USB sticks
- USB or Firewire harddisks
- card readers with or without media

The problem is caused by one of these, not an actual floppy disk drive.

[valdeEdius]

Do you have some drives which are recognized as removable, e.g.
- connected USB sticks
- USB or Firewire harddisks
- card readers with or without media

The problem is caused by one of these, not an actual floppy disk drive.

Yes, at all times I have a card reader that produces a number of drive letters that contain no media. Additionally I occasionally have USB drives connected, but this problem persists even when the usb drives are unplugged.

[ghisler(Author)]

OK, in this case the new version 8.52 beta 1 may solve your problem - please try it!

[valdeEdius]

So after much testing, I can confirm that the earlier fix involving denying refresh manually did not solve my problem. However, the new beta did infact solve my problem definitively!

I can still feel the same delay existing, but it is ~.25s rather than ~2.5s - TREMENDOUSLY better. Nobody minds a quarter second delay.

[ghisler(Author)]

Yes, indeed TC starts a background thread now and waits a fraction of a second for it to complete. If it doesn't the drive is shown with a generic removable drive icon. If the thread completes later, TC updates the icon if it really is a floppy disk drive.