[Billy_bob_bob]

It has been my experience that when you run heavy duty software on a PC (CAD-CAM, Photoshop, etc.) you can pretty much expect to have to re-format the hard drive every six months or so. As you say, the system is "young", but the drive has many many hard miles on it and the "rot" has built up. Give it a good scrubbing with a formatting and it should be good as new.

[Campion]

As you say, the system is "young", but the drive has many many hard miles on it and the "rot" has built up.

Let's be clear, though: the drive is not the problem. If the drive were the problem, all the reformats in the world would not fix it. The problem is the OS managing the drive.

I have never heard of a Linux system with this sort of "creeping death" syndrome. It's a Microsoft problem.