Right, the set up I have it I have a 60GB HDD (HD1) as primary which runs Windows OS and all processes, programmes etc...

I also have an 80GB HDD (HD2) as slave that is just formatted to NTFS and I use as mass storage - mostly music and video files, with also pics and all the exe/set up files for the programmes I have downloaded and installed.

the idea behind this was that in the event it all goes tits up with a currupted OS or a virus fucks my primary HDD then I don't loose all my data as 90% is stored on HD2 - and once an OS is back on HD1 then installing the programmes I use is easy as I already have all the set up exe's.

Anyway, this worked great for a little while - HD1 would operate Windows Media Player, and the music would come from the music files stored on HD2. But a few days leter I started noticing that the music was getting a few hic-ups, blurrs, pop's, crackles etc... And it has been getting worse - from one or two tiny intrusions in a song to it being literaly every beat - it's like listeing to an old record!

But I made a discovery yesterday, and that if I copy a track from a CD onto HD1 and copy the same track onto HD2 and play them back one at a time : HD1 track is faultless. Completely clean and intrusion free. But the same track played from HD2 is full of pops and farts

So what I want to know is what is most likely causing this?

It's not like the CPU is over loaded - I checked and whilst running WMP and a track from HD2, with 2 or three IE windows open and a download going on the CPU performace is still low. I would have thought that running two drives at the same time would be BETTER as you have two seek times, two sets of RPM, instead of one drive trying to do it all.

I don't think it is heat related as as it does it straight away - after it has been off all night, and only just turned on - and does the same when it has been on all day.

So could it be that HD2 is sticking? Or unbalanced in some way? Or could it be a compatability issue?

Any idea's?