How to stop Lightroom drive or folder scan?

I had a system crash and so I had to re-install all of my apps.  I am using the older Lightroom 5 which still serves my needs well.

On my photo drive, I have over 2TB, 300K+ files.  I open Lightroom and try to open ONE folder.  Lightroom is apparently scanning the whole drive.  I don't want it to, I only want it to open the folders I am interested in.  I am unable to use the product as it scans, and scans, and then ultimately it goes into "not responding" mode as it has worked itself into a frenzy.  I made sure AutoImport was disabled.  I don't know of any other setting to tell Lightroom to back off.  There is no value for me for it to scan the whole drive.

I can't grasp what else it could be doing or how to stop it.  Why can't I choose one folder, import it, and do what I want to do?

None of my searches for an answer have succeeded so I am here, asking for help.  I don't know why, by default, LR can't just do what I want it to do, and instead freak out over the volume of files it doesn't know about.

As a temporary work around, I moved the one specific folder to another drive, and even then, it attempts to import all the sub-folders.  How can I force it to pay attention to what I am trying to do, only open the folder I want, not scan the drive, not scan sub-folders.  I have wasted so much time trying to get LR to behave.  I have no other program that behaves like this.

BTW, Windows 7 Pro if that matters.  I sure hope I can reign this beast in.

Thanks,

Lew