Thanks codar,
It seems to be only the BH image that causes this problem with the HDD.
Ian from another forum seems to have found the answer to my original crashing problem (fingers crossed)
He said it is caused by the skin. I have now installed Vix again and left the skin as default. So far so good.
Thanks to you Guys for all the good advice also.
Hope this helps others too!
Kind regards,
Jules.