Right click, copy and delete action delay in XP

When I right click on a file, or select a file and hit the Del key, or select a file and hit Ctrl+c to copy it, the machine takes hell a lot of time to complete these simple tasks. It takes approximately 10 seconds to perform these tasks and it is horribly painful. It was good til last week, dont know what went wrong.. I use WinXP. Can anybody provide a quick fix pls?? Thanks!!