4ndy

Sounds like a power problem. If this is the case, potentially, you could underclock GPU and/or the memory to gain stability whilst you save up for a more monstrous pack. What PSU do you have watt-wise? Also check the heat sink has seated back on properly after you cleaned it (if you took it off?) Possibly may need to reapply thermal paste on the GPU & mem (if covered). Incorrectly/poorly fitted cooler can cause stability issues.

What motherboard is it?

Just reading this thread - Checkout the last post re nvidia drivers. Could be of interest? (no one has commented on it which makes it more interesting) Unless you are all AMD/ATI of course. How much free space do you have on your boot drive? If it's a bit full you could create some space by deleting any unnecessary restore points. You can do this easily in ccleaner (tools/system restore.. study the list and delete any you don't need)

You've unticked all the index locations?

Here's an interesting thread detailing something similar (from 2009 though)

What happens if you turn off search indexing? (indexing options / modify) perhaps rebuild the index if you want it to continue operating.

Here's another interesting free file recovery program (more complicated / less obvious but works well once you suss it out ) http://www.pcinspector.de/Default.htm?language=1 Is this a Maxtor external 1tb ? Oops it's WD missed the title!! :blush:

Possibly damaged some (depending on how full it was). It's worth scanning the drive with recuva (as is) just to see what's there. You don't have to restore anything. However, the longer you leave it the more likely the files will become damaged. I don't think there's much movement of data in mechanical drives other than if they get dropped / bashed (disregarding routine maintenance defrag etc (could be prudent to turn this off)) at which point the controller will try to move data out of physically damaged areas to the "reserve tank".. This is unlike SSD's BTW which are moving stuff about all the time doing according to their wear levelling algorithm etc. I think mechanical drives are far better for data security. I've even swapped heads between drives in the past to recover "lost data" other than hot-swapping this is as hardcore as it gets?? :)

Similarly, when you format a drive (especially if you use the Quick Format option), Windows erases the hidden index but does not overwrite the existing files until you start saving new data to it. Recuva can still scan the drive's contents to find your files. Quoted from here

I've written quite a lot in VB6. Started off programming "seriously" with QBasic (other than typing in programs from magazines into a BBC/specy years ago) I converted to object oriented with VB3 and then 4 (missed 5 thankfully as it was renowned buggy). Recently (Just before Visual Studio 2010 came out) Microsoft had a good deal on Visual Studio 2008 so I bought it and have written a bit with VB 2008 (crazy stuff like a lotto program that generates numbers from sun flux @ 2.4 GHz ("the wax and wane of caribou populations" etc lol)). Seems it is morphing into C / takes a while to get used to the changes they've made to it. Don't forget you can download VB 2010 express for free if you fancy having a go. I don't think you'll encounter any limitations for a while if you're a novice. Dark Basic is also good fun.

In answer to your question re HD diagnostics check the manufacturers website as they usually have a their own program ie seatools. Some are better than others. As mentioned previously most problems I get with HD's are cable related. So if you suspect HD change the cable or swap end for end and reseat several times. Perhaps try a different MB connection. Or is it IDE ?

I'm not sure which file recovery program is recomended here. Personally i've used Piriform Recuva with good results. Presumably you need to restore the original files back from the external drive. Edit - Results will depend on how you formatted it.

Don't forget that if you are missing you old XP software you can download and use the MSoft XP emulator on your Win7 prof machine. (not for Win7 home)

No new software or hardware.. Out of interest have you checked the MB/Computer manufacturers website to see if there's a Bios update (usually they say what they are for i.e. fixes problem with memory controller etc,etc)

What happens if - 1/You drag a music file from the external drive to the desktop, then try to play it. 2/ You use some of these suspect music files to produce an audio CD (not a data cd with mp3's on BTW) using your burning software and play that (say, in a standalone). ?