Sorting by Date - Very Slow
Solution 1:
Which Date column is this exactly? As mentioned here, Date is different from Date Created/Modified/Accessed (on Win7 at least, ought to be the same in Win8 as well). It might be slow if the former column type is used and Explorer is trying to extract EXIF data from the files. Try Date Created or Date Modified instead and see if it is still as slow. (If it is, check your HDD for errors using the manufacturer's utility.)