My game uses loadsa background surfaces that are pretty huge (i have 64MB mem so its ok), instead of loading all the surfaces at loading the level, im thinking of loading the bitmaps as needed, replacing the unneeded bitmaps (surfaces) on the go. BUT ive noticed when the game (or even another app) writes to the HDD, the game hangs for a split second, resulting in gameplay distortion and increased stress when attempting to sak the endoflevel boss. Is there a way to read/write files in the background without using the CPU too much? Or should I tell everyone to buy SCSI HDD''s and loose ye ol''e cheapo IDE''s. arg

Don''t do it! HDD access is SLOOOOW. Accessing the hard disk is always going to stop the computer dead in its tracks, IDE or SCSI doesn''t mater. If there is any way you can get your graphics in system memory, do it that way. The time you will save at the begining of the level is not worth the price you will pay later (jerky gameplay). Take the time hit at the begining of the level and get it over with.

You might also want to increase the priority level for you game, so most of the cpu cycles are avaliable to you.