Event ID 51 error

Win XP SR2
primary internal HD
2 USB HDs
"An error was detected on device device\harddisk1\D during a paging
operation."
The error may occur 20-30 times in 1-2 minutes and not again for 6-18 hours.
Possibly associated - every once in a while I can hear a sound in my
tower that sounds like the PC is writing to a 5 1/4 floppy - al I have
is HDs and CD drive. The '51' error does not appear to correlate with
the sound.
FWIW, for some reason all three drives (all partitioned) have one drive
as FAT32 and the other(s) as NTFS.
In researching this I found a harddisk0 refers to my internal. How do I
know which of the 2 USB HDs is number 1? Can't use Disk Manager - when
I click on it nothing happens for 3-5 minutes, then I get 'server
execution failed.'
Further investigation found the error often associated with HD failure
and sometimes associated with sw. Any way to differentiate?
Any other advice/instruction welcome.

"J Lunis" <jay.lunis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:GFifh.568$hk3.252@newsfe04.lga...
> Win XP SR2
> primary internal HD
> 2 USB HDs
> "An error was detected on device device\harddisk1\D during a paging
> operation."
> The error may occur 20-30 times in 1-2 minutes and not again for 6-18
> hours.
> Possibly associated - every once in a while I can hear a sound in my tower
> that sounds like the PC is writing to a 5 1/4 floppy - al I have is HDs
> and CD drive. The '51' error does not appear to correlate with the sound.
> FWIW, for some reason all three drives (all partitioned) have one drive as
> FAT32 and the other(s) as NTFS.
> In researching this I found a harddisk0 refers to my internal. How do I
> know which of the 2 USB HDs is number 1? Can't use Disk Manager - when I
> click on it nothing happens for 3-5 minutes, then I get 'server execution
> failed.'
> Further investigation found the error often associated with HD failure and
> sometimes associated with sw. Any way to differentiate?
> Any other advice/instruction welcome.

Disconnect 1 USB drive, and run the machine to see if your
problem goes away.
If not, plug it back in, and disconnect the other USB drive.

This way you`ll isolate the drive that`s in trouble.

Run the drive manufacturers test software on the drives.
Beware of losing all data on the dodgy drive !!

bw..OJ