EFBob, I do have Virtual Box downloaded but not installed. Too many programs running in the background shouldn't affect JSGME. Bad downloads will affect the mod install to the sim. For background program running, Game Booster should solve that problem. I always did and still does for me. Look in this thread....
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=223687
I've run SH3 off a slave drive with no problems. It was actually my old XP C Drive with SH3 and SH5 on it. As a slave it didn't boot up but showed up as my F Drive.
I'm thinking of going dual boot so I can choose which drive to run. I still see people running XP connected to the internet. But, I'm only going to run XP off line. SH3 and 5 might still be on that XP drive.
Right this minute I'm running a couple of programs off a different slave drive with no problems.
For those able to run a slave drive loaded with XP, wouldn't this solve a whole bunch of problems for running SH3?