Slow Loading Times from Episode 2 and Portal

[Shockz]

I am having a problem with the reload times (or loading times after I die) on Episode 2 and Portal. The reload times for Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 are fast, but for Episode 2 and Portal it takes the time of an initial map load. A reload time for Episode 2 and Portal is about 1-2 minutes, as opposed to a few seconds on Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. Does anyone have any suggestions about why it would take so long for the new HL games to load after I die? I tried allocating more RAM to the games from 256 MB to 1024 MB, but that didn't seem to help any. My brother has almost the same specs on his computer as I do, and his reload times are quick for Episode 2 and Portal.

Here are the necessary PC specs, if wanted:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.5 GHz
2 GB DDR Ram
GeForce 7950 GX2 512 MB (x2 in SLI for Quad-Core)
250GB 7200 RPM HDD (x2 running in RAID)

 

[Operational]

Try defragging Ep2 and Portal's cache files.

 

[Shockz]

That didn't seem to increase the loading times. It still says the fragmentation is 0% after I have defraged it though.

 

[AciD]

Try defragging with THAT

 

[Shockz]

Defragging didn't help the load times. I tried it with GCFscape as well and the load times are still long.

 

[cranphin]

I wonder if this might be the same problem ?
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=136719&highlight=load+times