Why does windows 'discover' files before dealing with them ?

[Donnie Fisher]

I'm in the process of shuffling my data backups and stuff to better organise it all. It's a lot of files from over the years and what's becoming frustrating is the discovery of files.

Let's say I want to shift my archive of pictures which is lots of directories and files. If I drag drop copy windows spends an age 'discovering files'. Only once it's done that does it start to transfer.

Does anyone know why does it have to do that ?

Just start copying please ! Really frustrating.