Weird hard disk problems

[Thorz]

I have been using µ almost 2 years and have never had a problem with it.

Recentily my main machine went down due to PSU replacement. I started using my laptop (Acer Travelmatre 8000) with my daily activities, this involves download of some torrents using µ.

2 days ago XP complained about IDE errors under events. I backed up things and decided to give the disk a big test on another computer. I took the disk to my work and made and exhaustive Spinrite 6 testing on it. The test came clean, the hard disk is in good condition. All was pointing to the onboard IDE controller of the notebook.

While I was testing the hard disk I started to use my wife's notebook, another Acer. I installed µ on it and downloaded 2 torrents (one on saturday and one on sunday). I was shocked when yesterday in the night Windows XP crashed for first time in more than a year on that machine. I got a BSOD and a memory dump. After coming back to Windows the systenm was very slow. I suspected hard disk fail AGAIN and backed up what I could. I put the disk under the same tests and Spinrite found this time phisical fails on the Hard disk. Spinrite is still running on it.

The big question is: Is it possible that µ has stressed the hard drives and IDE systems on these 2 machines and make them fail? The chances for this to happen in 2 separate machines at almost the same time are so minumun! The only common task between these 2 was µTorrent and NOD32 AV (that I doubt has anything to do with this).

Was this a mere coincidence? What do you think?

Thank you very much!

[Ultima]

If you're willing to, try uninstalling NOD32... it's been known to cause problems with P2P applications before.

[Thorz]

But after using NOD32 for more than 3 years it has never interfered with my P2P appz. On the machine with the fail I have been using it for more than a year and a half without troubles.

The HD in the wife's machine showed physical errors and I dumped it on the trashcan. Th one on my machine passed Spinrite 6 tests without any signs of damage. I restored from a previous Acronis True Image and the system has been running ok. I have installed µ again on both machines and will have an eye open. It could have been a temperature issue or maybe one of those catastrophic weeks that com and luckily go once every 10 years?

Thanks.