Well, taking into account the many suggestions i've recieved from both here and from fellow programmers (thank you, who's responded), i've done it! This is what i've come up with...

sub adj3_gi { 
    my $path='\\';
    my $computer = "LAIN";

    foreach(@_) {
    # skip if it doesn't start with either a space or backslash, or if
+ it starts with "  ." or "  .."
    next if ((/^[^ \\]/) || (/^ {2}\.{1,2}\s/));
    
    # process path if first char is '\'
    if (/^\\/) { chop; $path = "$_\\"; }
    
    # break apart returned directory and file info
    elsif (/^ {2}(.*?(\.([^\.]+?))?) {5} *([HDRSA]*) +(\d+) {2}(.*)/gi
+`) {
        #print "{$computer\:$path$1, ". (defined $3 ? $3 : "").", $4, 
+$5, $6 }\n";

    } }
}
[download]

putting everything in that one regexp made everything much faster. However theres one anomaly that i don't quite understand. I played a little with the options at the end of the regexp, mainly "g" and "i".

    with g:  4 wallclock secs ( 3.91 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.91 CPU)
   with gi:  4 wallclock secs ( 3.64 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.64 CPU)
    with i:  7 wallclock secs ( 6.40 usr +  0.01 sys =  6.41 CPU)
 with none:  6 wallclock secs ( 6.77 usr +  0.00 sys =  6.77 CPU)
[download]

I ran this several times, and the results were all similar. Now i could *possibly* understand the g making things faster. but the i? i was always under the impression (from both professors and fellow coders) that the /i would make things slower. Noone i asked can explain it. Or is this more regexp voodoo? ^_^