Why does a full network drive slow down the entire computer?

[DaSal]

I know how to fix this problem, I was just wondering if anyone knows WHY it happens.

I have a network drive that I use on my iMac and every time it's nearly full, my WHOLE machine becomes unusably slow. I mean, even opening a finder window can take up to a minute. Just deleting a couple of files off the network drive will fix the problem. Unfortunately, it can take up to an hour just to delete a file because everything is so slow, including the actually deleting of the file.

I don't have an system files on the drive, just a bunch of video files and personal documents.

I was just curious why the network drive being slow would impact the whole system? It just seems weird to me.

 

[spinnerlys]

How is that network drive connected to your Mac and network and how do you access it?

Does the problem only occur when accessing the network drive (while being full) or even if you leave the network drive alone and access other parts of your internal or external HDD?