File System Files Access by Tomcat

Hi,
I have a very big problem. In my Web Application I have to open some images (.tif) in my Jsp.
The problem is that all those images togheter are very strong (a lot of Gb) and so I have to place them into different subdirectories inside the main directory. The main directory is quite strong, and so I cannot place it under my Application's defaultroot, at the same level than jsp, neither in the .war file. I have to place it in another file system directory than this. So, I need my jsp to be able to enter into this file system directory and also into all of its subdirectories.
How can I do that??
OS: Windows 200 Server
AS: Tomcat 4.0.6
Thanks a lot... and sorry for my English!
bye

strong=large or big btw.
if you have to do this - and i dont udnerstand why there is a limit on the number of filesyou can put in a given folder - then you can add C to your classpath and use getResourceAsStream() to get the given resource as an InputStream. Its a very bad idea to give yuo web server access to yuor harddrive tho. the whole point of web applications is that the rest of your machine is shielded from the application (sandboxed) so that anyone who cracks the security on the web app doesnt root your machine (take it over and control it)