External Memory Cause iMac to lag. (CF Card, External Drive.)

[DonaldLynd]

For some reason that I cant seem to figure out, my mac likes to use external memory as supplemental power when dealing with big files (photography). If I unplug the external and take out any CF card's I may have left in, it runs perfect.

My iMac:
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Could someone point me in the right direction on how I can tell my comp to stop using any external memory?

Thanks, Donald

 

[DonaldLynd]

Any thoughts?

 

[JNB]

Can you be a bit more specific? Like, what exactly are you doing when this happens, what exactly is happening, and what leads you think there's a problem. You don't have external memory, BTW, the devices you mention are storage. I'm not sure what you mean by the iMac using them as "supplemental power."

I think you're saying that there's drive activity on external storage devices during save & open operations. If this is what's happening, that's normal, as the Mac looks at all connected devices when opening or saving a file.

 

[DonaldLynd]

Hey, sorry about the weak reply. The problem mainly happens when I am using the liquify filter in photoshop. If I eject my external drives it runs perfect, nice and quick. With the external drive still connected it run's slow, lagging during the use of the filter. So bad its hardly useable.