Problem with Windows 7 Folder Explorer & Large Image Files

[Craig Joiner]

I wonder if anyone here can help me.

I've a number of very large tiff files (16 bit LF scans with layers) on a network drive. I usually access these using my DAM software so rarely actually browse the folders on the network drive.

Recently I've needed to browse these folders and discovered that Windows 7 has a nasty habit of trying to read all the tif files contained in each folder the moment I open a folder in explorer. This results in my PC becoming unresponsive for 20 mins or so as memory usage hits max. while explorer reads my image files. My work in progress folder currently has a 3.5 GB file in there and it's virtually impossible to get into this folder now.

I've tried turning off thumbnails in folder settings but it still continues. It even happens when I open the save as dialogue in photoshop.

I don't recall ever having this problem with XP.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[feppe]

Have you tried turning off indexing? Worth a try.

[Craig Joiner]

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately turning off indexing hasn't helped.

Another session searching Google seems in order.

[Per Madsen]

Are you using 32 bit or 64 bit windows 7 ?

[Ken Lee]

I use Picasa to browse my images. It handles thumbnails of huge files very easily.

Much faster than Windows, Mac, and Adobe Bridge.

When I find the image I want, I open it with Photoshop using Open With... from Picasa.

Not only is it fast, it's free.

See http://picasa.google.com

[Craig Joiner]

Per,

I'm using 64bit.

Ken,

Thanks for the tip but I do most of my browsing in IDimager which amounts to the same thing as Picasa. In fact I rarely browse folders because of IDimager's search & catalogue functions negate the need. On occasion however I might need to use folder explorer to drag a file into an upload application or more commonly use the Windows open file dialogue when uploading an image via a web browser and that's when my problems start.

On searching Google I find I am not alone with this. Most people don't have a problem because they have sensibly sized media files and it's only when explorer trips over the occasional corrupt file they have a problem. It's those of us with larger files that have frequent issues.

So far all the suggestions I have found have failed to help. Maybe it's time to re-organise my files and keep output files separate from my large master files so I won't need to browse folders with large files, or maybe it's time to move to a Mac!

[Preston]

Craig,

If ou decide to reorganize your files and/or folders, use the Media Browser within ID Imager. This will ensure that the changes you make will be reflected in your 'Catalog Folders' in IDI.

--P

[Ken Lee]

Thanks for the tip but I do most of my browsing in IDimager which amounts to the same thing as Picasa. In fact I rarely browse folders because of IDimager's search & catalogue functions negate the need. On occasion however I might need to use folder explorer to drag a file into an upload application or more commonly use the Windows open file dialogue when uploading an image via a web browser and that's when my problems start.

Have you asked IDimager customer support ? They're likely to know if anyone does, because they write the app for Windows only, so they're familiar with the APIs which Microsoft provides.

We who use Large Format, shoot a small number of very large files. Typical digital shooters produce a very large number of small files.

[sczin]

Craig,

I had the exact same problem and couldn't believe how long it took to read the folder. The steps below worked for me.

Steve


Go to the folder
Rright click on properties
Goto the customized tab
Where it say’s “what kind of folder do you want?”
Change to “general properties”

[domaz]

Change explorer to details view and make that the default. It shouldn't try to open the TIF file for thumbnail viewing with details view.

Picasa hasn't been good to me for browsing TIFs- last time I tried it basically exploded trying to generate thumbnails for 4x5 color scans. This is probably because my TIFs are RLE compressed. No program will be able to open these files for a quick preview. Just not possible as the whole file has to be decompressed first.