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.