ok... two things you can do... one is this... go to the start menu, then control panel, then; select system, click on the advanced tab, then click performance >settings, click on the advanced tab, you will see three settings.... for "processor scheduling", set it to programs, for memory usage, set that one to programs. then click apply, at the bottom.... to go any further, I'd need to know how many partitions you have, and how big they are.... that's the third setting on that menu. if your partitions are large enough, you can reset page caches to a better setting than windows management does. Lou.

"..... and that was when things got interestiing."