Hard Drive Holding me back?

So... I installed Windows last night, AGAIN (stupid hall.dll missing error). Funny thing is, this board does 400x6 ALL DAY. it does 400x7 as well... Now when I try something like 378x9 (3.4Ghz), it gives me BSOD's.... Also it gives me BSOD's when I try for 400x8 and 400x9 sometimes. Weird, huh? I highly doubt its the board. I'm thinking its my HD giving in. According to Captain Newbie's thread:

0x77 - Error paging in a kernel portion This error means that the Win32 kernel had trouble reading in data from the page file. According to Microsoft, bad blocks or other disk problems may cause this error, along with possibly faulty RAM. If you encounter this error, check for viruses, run a memory test (such as memtest86), and check your disks for bad blocks. This error is closely related to the *_FILE_SYSTEM errors. (Thanks to JigPu.)

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0xF4 - Termination of system-critical process or thread If a system-critical program or object stops running, you get this blue screen of death. This is almost certainly a pure software problem. For what it's worth, the first parameter can tell you if the object that was killed was a process (0x03) or a thread (0x06). This is another "die immediately if this happens" error. Check your system file integrity (sfc /scannow), or back up the things that are really important to you and start fresh.

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I've also gotten the dreaded "Windows cannot format this disk, blah blah blah in Windows Setup" And I've noticed how right before it gives me a BSOD, the HD is undergoing some serious activity. I turned off the paging file in Windows and that seemed to help a bit stability wise, but then Windows "adjusted" my virtual memory cause it said it was too low and a few moments later, boom.. HD activity and a BSOD.. Have you guys ever heard of a Hard Drive causing OC problems? I don't get these problems when I run at stock though... weird

It definitely has to do with your OC, I doubt a new hard drive would help you. The first time I OCed I had the same problems that you are having. I tried to OC before installing the OS and I would get that "Windows cannot format this disk" error. It might have to do with power. Perhaps, your IDE controller is on your NB or something like that and the higher multi causes it to draw more power so it crashes when trying to do both. And it looks like you have a pretty good PSU, but it is possible that running the hard drive draws too much power and crashes the system. Or it could just be simply that your OC makes it too unstable.

Well what I don't understand is that as soon as I get any HD activity, the system BSOD's. I have a SATA Raptor, so I'm not using an IDE controller for my hard drives. I'm using the ICH8 thats part of my board. the rails on my PSU test out just fine under load... so

Have you tried upping the voltage of your NB or anything else on the board? I am just trying to think of where the multiplier and hard drive would meet inside the system and the only thing that seems logical is the NB. Also, you might want to try running on a live CD to see if you can produce an error.

I forgot to mention that after it BSOD's and I restart it, it usually freezes at the "Detecting IDE Devices" screen and I have to turn off he computer and turn it back on. Its almost as if its not detecting it... could that also be another indicator? I started a checkdisk when I left for work this morning, so we'll see about that when I get home for lunch. I'm going to run WD's Data Lifeguard's utilities after that

do you have a pci lock? if not then you are probably giving the chipsets an unstable frequency, so when it goes to read or write to the drive it errors like crazy and causes the bsod. put everything to factory settings to see if it happens.

I stated that the problems does not happen at stock speeds. I thought all modern boards nowadays ship with a PCI lock?

think again.

hmmm I have the Abit AB9 QuadGT...I've read tons of good things about it... but theres nowhere in the BIOS for me to set a PCI lock...

Most do come with a lock that is enabled by default. However, I don't think that is the problem because you are not raising your FSB just your multiplier so the PCI clock should stay the same.

Well clearly if it BSOD at stock speeds, it's not the HDD, but some OC setting the mobo doesn't like.

NO.. It does NOT BSOD at stock speeds!