When the Apple IIGS Finder starts very slowly, perhaps even seeming to be
locked up, there are a number of things you can do:
- Limit the number of files/folders at the root level of the hard disk to
fifty or less.
- Limit the number of files in any given folder to 50-60. This allows a
reasonable number of files in a folder without any undue amount of time
opening and displaying the folder. (These 50-60 files within folders can
be other folders.)
- Displaying the file names by Name or Date, rather than by icon, take less
time.
- Check the Control Panel and be sure there is no RAM set aside for RAM Disk.
Memory is needed to build the table for displaying the files. If you have
any of the RAM card assigned as RAM Disk, you will take up memory space
needed to build this table. Normally this would give you an out of memory
error message, but something else may be happening before the error is
displayed.
When the Finder is requested to open a window, it must calculate the regions
for every file/folder to show, so it knows where in the window it goes, and
whether or not to display it, given the current size of the window, not to
mention what color it needs to be. This can take a long time. Seven hundred
files/folders could take hours to show up in the window on the screen.