Donald writes:

<<Thinking it may be a mechanical problem with the drive, I replaced it with
a new WD as I have done in the past but there is something going on here
that is strange.>>

Replace the drive cable. Faulty drive cables can cause apparent random hard 
drive problems.

A few months ago I was just about ready to throw out my hard drive. Did a 
disk check with HD Tune (freeware) which indicated an excessive number of 
data transmission faults, and recommended replacing the cable.

Did that, and it has been AOK ever since.

Have you ruled out a fault in the CD?

Don Penlington

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