Desperate for Help please....

[jjaycee1 0]

I am having a terrible time recently with my PC used for FSX. I added a second HDD in January and all was well until suddenly I started getting freezes in FSX.I have Vista 32bit Home Prem on C drive and FSX on a 500Gig D drive.I formatted yet agin the other day and :1. Loaded FSX from the CD's... Rebooted, started FSX upto Free Flight2. Loaded SP1.. rebooted, started FSX upto Free Flight3. Loaded SP2 .. repeated as above.........then flew the default flight. All was good.4. Loaded FEX... repeated above, all was well.5. Loaded 3 Volumes of Horizon Gen X england /Wales.. rebooted, flew a chosen flight in Uk with no setting at Default. Flew a great flight for a ten minute test flight. No problems.6. Added Orbix Blue.. rebooted, started FSX upto Free flight option.Loaded Orbix Gold.. repeated as above.7. Defragged using Disk keeper, as recently my Ultimate defrag has started having problems with D drive( my first notice that there may be a HDD problem)Shut down PC for 3 hours, and the when i went to start FSX my PC froze. The endless result has been problems starting the PC with constant Checkdisk runs, No problems reported after the checkdisk run. try to start FSX and it can either freeze on first click on the FSX logo, or it loads upto the Free Flight page and when i click on anything it freezes.I have had a thorough SMART diagnostic done and the HDrive is OK.I am now trying to Format the HDrive yet again, but now it says it cannot complete the format and when another attempt is made the PC freezes.I can confirm I do not have heat problems. What I cannot fathom is why all during the day I was loading FSX up with some addons FSX was working like a dream, but as soon as I ShutDown ( versus rebooting) and the PC had a respite for a few hours I star getting exacly the same freezing problems.ANY ideas at all greatly appreciated.regards

[Guest D17S]

Seems you have 2 separate things going on.1) Clean up that 2nd HD with an "Overwrite HD with XXXs" utility (Most HD self-install utilities have this feature). It'll take all night, but just let it run. If that does not stabilize the drive, RMA it. It's headed south. In the future for simplicity and reliability, install FS on your boot drive. Ultimate defrag can sort by Name and optimize to the outer edge. That would get rid of one variable. Running FS on a second drive helps nothing (if you keep the boot drive defragged regularly). Use the 2nd drive for backup and general file storage.2) For the in-game freezing problem, a trick is to remove and reinstall the Vcard driver. But this time, delete the FSX.cfg file before you start the sim for the 1st time. Let the .cfg file rebuild with the fresh driver. See if that helps.