Many thanks for the hints about things to try OldMuso! 

To answer your last question, no the 2TB drive is not an SSD.  
4.)  I make a separate directory for each song I'm working on and make a new directory for each album I've produced.  I put all of these directories in a BB Music folder on the F: drive. F:\BB Music\

5.) I run backups of my music folders to another drive every week but I don't have any off-site storage like you mention, which is a very good idea.

Thanks again for the pointers and I may try loading Realband on a SSD USB drive just to see if that makes a difference. I'll have to buy a suitable SSD USB next time I go to town, the ones I have laying around are all old, low speed dogs.


Del