slow access on partition

[artyboy]

Before I reformat and reinstall everything, I wonder if I can do anything about the following problem.
I have a duel boot system.
first partition is win98 the second partition is winxp the third is for music and the fourth is for projects.
When I boot into xp then go to my projects or music partitions, then try to open a folder, the hard drive starts working but it takes over a minute to access the folder I want to view. It seems to me that xp is struggling to read the folders on other partitions!
Anyone know what it is that's wrong?
I have partition magic pro 7, I have had the same set up long ago but never had this problem.

Thankyou in advance.