Slow DIR cmd on large mem stick

[Franko]

Does anybody know how to speed up the DIR command (using DOS7, USBUHCIL, USBDRIVE) on large capacity USB mem sticks?
I had the 1G stick (2.0) and DIR cmd responds in a second even if stick is filled with great number of files.
Tried with 4G stick, containing three files only, and the DIR needs from 8 to 20 seconds for output been displayed. I configured the stick in different partitioning modes: 1st partition FAT32 (80MB, 1G, full capacity), the remained part: left unpartitioned or FAT32 or NTFS. The results are in the above mentioned 8 to 20 secs.
It's difficult (or impossible) today find low capacity memory sticks.
Believe (but don't know how) it must be possible to hide the mem portion of stick over 1G.
Help pls.
Franko.

[Bret]

There is no way I know of to speed things up for the first DIR command, though the second time you do it should be much faster. Using a cache makes it even faster.

The DIR command has to download the entire FAT (several sectors worth) to be able to determine the amount of free space on the disk (the last thing displayed int he DIR command). It doesn't matter how many files there are -- it takes the same amount of time no matter what. The DIR command doesn't look at the unpartitioned part of the disk anyway, so there's no need to try and "hide" it. The slow speed is probably just related to how the disk is manufactured, or how it's formatted, not necessarily how big it is.

You could try using FAT16 instead of FAT32, which could be faster in you particular situation.

[Franko]

Thank you Bret,
I agree there must be something in manufacturing procedure, because even the 1st partition is set to only 80MB, the file access (and DIR cmd too) is very slow.
I posted the question to assure myself there is no any tip-and-trick to override the problem.
Best regards.