Never ending busy mode; what is going on?

[Xiahou]

A couple of things...

First, check Event Viewer- look in the System and Application logs for any events from around the same time as your lockups. Let us know if you see anything interesting. (If you don't know where to find Event Viewer, just do a "Start->Run Eventvwr.msc")

Second, you might want to try something like Speedfan to look at the SMART data for your second drive. It has an option for a "detailed" report that opens in a web page. SMART data is no guarantee, but the data it tracks can often predict hard drive failures and Speedfan also aggregates this data into drive performance and health percentages.