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hondageek
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p.1 #1 · question for PC geeks...


Excuse my lack of proper terminology. Does the hierarchy of file storage make a difference (a real world diff, not nanoseconds) in PC performance? For example: when I download a CF card from a shoot, I copy the files from the card into a new folder on my harddrive. Usually it goes something like this: F:> photos> motocross> southwick> 2005> lites moto 1. My working files for Lightroom 2.0 are usually a few tiers down into the harddrive. My PC is running incredibly slowly lately and I'm wondering if my cataloging is part of the problem.

Oct 06, 2008 at 02:29 AM
DIS Ottawa
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p.1 #2 · question for PC geeks...


Have you defragged your hard disk recently and cleaned up the old/temp files? Also, sometimes the registry gets clogged and needs to be cleaned up as well.

I doubt it's the file hierarchy.

Oct 06, 2008 at 02:39 AM
hondageek
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p.1 #3 · question for PC geeks...


I defragged the other day. As far as the temp files and registry... I'll have to google what to do with those.? Lightroom 2.0 runs so slowly for me that it's basically useless. It can take 20 seconds for it to render a full sized raw 5D file. Exporting a batch of 200 or so 1000 pixel jpegs can take hours.

Oct 06, 2008 at 02:51 AM
hidden_Markov
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p.1 #4 · question for PC geeks...


You can do folders in folders in folders to your hearts content and it won't have any effect. I am ocd with files and get some deep nested folder structure goin on.


Do the above mentioned PM stuff. Once a month usually good. If you install a major application like a game or other program, defrag after install . See your drive before install and after, you'll see why. Most installers throw files all over and fragment a drive in minutes flat.




Oct 06, 2008 at 02:52 AM
DIS Ottawa
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p.1 #5 · question for PC geeks...


If you're running XP or Vista, go into control panel and you will find the command to clean up the temp files.

What you're describing could also be a hardware problem. I had a power surge this summer (lightning strike) and it took a couple of weeks to show up, but eventually I had to replace the power supply and one of my hard drives. I thought I had software problems and PS and other programs were behaving strangely and running slowly but once the hardware problems were fixed, the software problems disappeared.

Oct 06, 2008 at 03:02 AM
kevinsullivan
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p.1 #6 · question for PC geeks...


The file hierarchy won't make a noticeable difference. Installing lots of software packages over time will often slow down a machine a lot, because many packages extend your machine with programs that invisibly start up when your machine starts up. Remove unnecessary packages from your system. Use the "task manager" to see what's running on your machine. Another possibility is that your machine has been compromised by a security attacker -- enrolled as a node in a "bot network." Be sure you're running up-to-date security software. Google to find out more.

Oct 06, 2008 at 03:03 AM
kevinsullivan
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p.1 #7 · question for PC geeks...


Another common problem is that you've got enough software running that you memory (RAM) is full, and so your programs are having to use your hard drive as a virtual memory. It works great except that it's slow as molasses. Again, use task manager to see whether your RAM is full. If it is, do the cheapest, best upgrade for almost any PC: Add memory.

Oct 06, 2008 at 03:06 AM
hondageek
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p.1 #8 · question for PC geeks...


Thanks for the input. I cleaned up the 21 temp files, defragged again, took half of the stuff off my startup list, etc. I'll do some research about security issues. My taskmanager tells me that my processor is running at 100% when LR2 is running so it may be time for a processor/mb/ram upgrade...

Oct 06, 2008 at 04:05 AM
R. Francois
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p.1 #9 · question for PC geeks...


i'm not a PC specialist. but since your processor is running @ 100% there must be something LR2 is doing for you. Maybe you try to render high quality thumbnails or something like that? hope you figure this out. keep us posted

Oct 06, 2008 at 05:47 AM
MidMadn
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p.1 #10 · question for PC geeks...


Some programs that run at startup can seriously drag down a PC.

A couple that I have had problems with on numerous PC's, (some mine and some friends) are - Mcafee and Symantec/Norton AV and security stuff.

If you running either of those - you might want to uninstall them and try AVG free anti virus.

Jack

Oct 06, 2008 at 12:02 PM
hondageek
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p.1 #11 · question for PC geeks...


MidMadn: I'm running AVG as my antivirus software. My system slows to a crawl when it's scanning drives. I usually cancel scans when I'm working.

Oct 06, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Alistair Watson
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p.1 #12 · question for PC geeks...


What kind of processor and how much RAM do you have in your PC right now?


Oct 06, 2008 at 03:42 PM
hondageek
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p.1 #13 · question for PC geeks...


It's a P4 2.66 with 2g of RAM. Not exactly a rocket, but it's been ok until I got LR2.

Oct 06, 2008 at 04:09 PM
tomm101
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p.1 #14 · question for PC geeks...


Does LR2 have a swapdrive like with PS, both Windows temp drive and the PS (if LR has one) swapdrive should be directed at a different drive, Having them on the main drive really junks things up, especially if you have close to a full drive. I have an AMD 2.7 with 1.5 gig and I don't notice any major slowdown, even with AVG checking disks, I have 2 physical HDs one drive is divided into 2 logical drives. PS and Windows goes to one of those drives.

Tom

Oct 07, 2008 at 12:46 AM
Macro
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p.1 #15 · question for PC geeks...


Exclude your LR catalog and cache directories from virus scanning.

Oct 07, 2008 at 06:30 AM
lylejk
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p.1 #16 · question for PC geeks...


In the old days, multiple nesting (depth of the subdirectories) did cause slowdown issues, but, for the most part, those issues have been eliminated, but still, I wouldn't go too deep with the subdirectories.

Oct 07, 2008 at 06:38 AM
Alistair Watson
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p.1 #17 · question for PC geeks...


Going from 2Gb to 4Gb of RAM would certainly help but I would strongly consider looking at what is causing the performance problem. Is it drive I/O that is the bottleneck or an application that is hogging memory, the AV suggestions are good ones. When I used to run Windows having a static page file helped alot, rather than the default 'variable sized system managed option'.

Personally I would do a clean restart, don't open any applications other than that is listed in the Startup folder and the registry 'Run' keys. Open Task Manager and see how much RAM is utilised and how much is free, look at virtual memory along with cpu utilisation. Checking processes will show you how much resources your running applications are using. Use this to eliminate as many startup/run items as possible. Restart your PC.
After the reboot use the Perfmon.exe tool and setup a CPU Utilisation, I/O, Memory and Virtual memory, then open LR2. The charting in Perfmon should give you an idea of what the problem is. All of this is based on the fact that your Images/Catalogues etc., are not on your system partion and all your drives are properly defragmented.

Hope this doesn't sound too vague but there really are so many things which could contribute to the problem.


Oct 07, 2008 at 11:15 AM
Steve Ickes
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p.1 #18 · question for PC geeks...


I don't know if it's recommended or not but after watching my LR get progressively slower with new folder of images, I decided to create separate cataloges for each sport or category of shoot. Runs much quicker for me.

Oct 07, 2008 at 02:30 PM
hondageek
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p.1 #19 · question for PC geeks...


Does it matter if my LR catalog and the original image files are on different drives?

Oct 08, 2008 at 01:43 AM
PESCADOMAN
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p.1 #20 · question for PC geeks...


I ran, basically, the same setup with AMD as you.

If you can afford it, upgrade. It made a WORLD of difference.

Go with 64 bit OS too. The only issues(rare, unless you have OLD hardware) are drivers. 64 can run 32 bit apps, but not the other way around.

4gb of good(I like Mushkin) ram.

I bought an e8400 intel dual core and have run it at 4ghz 24/7(literally) for months at a time.

CS3 starts up and is ready in about 2 secs and filters apply soo much faster, there is no comparison.

Let's face it...p4's have seen there day come and go...

I put about a grand into my build, with 10k satas ect-it could be done cheaper.

Oct 09, 2008 at 08:12 AM

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