Hi wichi777,
It may be something in your Winamp configuration (3rd party plug-in?) or settings or it could be delays in reading the external drive (although 10 sec sounds extreme). Have you tried a different cable and/or connection port? Is the external drive pretty much full or hasn't been defragged recently? Do other apps have trouble reading from it?
Use the Winamp Info Tool (linked to in the thread below) to make an extended report of your configuration and use the advanced reply editor to attach it to a post.
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....161361#plugins
If you are using mp3 files, you can configure the mp3 input plug-in to load the entire file into RAM instead of reading it in pieces from the external drive. Look in General Preferences - Plug-ins - Input, select "in_mp3.dll" on the right and click the "Configure" button. On the "General" tab, enter a value in the "Full File Buffering" option that is larger than your largest mp3 file.