Slow "checking sprites" at startup, what does it mean?

[ManaUser]

In general, 0.17 loads much faster than previous versions, which is great, but this one step "checking sprites" sometimes takes a long time, like a full minute or so. The weird part is that other times it only flashes by very quickly.

Any clue what's going on?

[Rseding91]

"Checking sprites" is reading all of the sprites from disk into memory that the game needs.

[ManaUser]

I see. I have yet to invest in an SSD, so it's not surprising that would take some time. I guess that means cases where it does go quickly are only thanks to Windows caching the files or something.