3 HDs broken in 4 months! HELP!!!

[chopsticker]

I installed a WD 60GB 54000 rpm HD 6 months ago. It broken down completely around March. At first it froze in WindowsXP, I rebooted it and WinXP ran a diskscan. It found around 100+ sectors that were corrupt. At which point I used the CD to go into the Emergency prompt and ran a diskscan with fixdisk enabled. Fixdisk repared a few sectors and then said the HD was unrecoverable. I checked the SMART report that was returned to me running WD's bootdisk and it said fatal error and unrecoverable. I sent that HD back with WD's RMA and in the meantime borrowed a friend's 5.4 GB HD (Seagate) . I installed WinXP on it, and used it for about 2 weeks. After a few weeks, I got another HD from WD that was the same model but labeled as refurb. I returned the 5.4 GB to my friend and he said that it was unusable with pretty much the same symptoms. I then installed the refurb HD (about 2 months ago) and it was running fine until yesterday when after the system had been on for 6 days, WindowsXP started to slowly not respond (I think due to the HD's bad sector when WinXP was trying to read off the scratch disk). I rebooted the system only find that diskscan says there are over 50+ sectors on the HD that are bad. I rebooted again, and after the RAM check was complete, the mobo said that the HD has an error based on the SMART check. And now it's pretty much unusable again. My question is what do you think could be causing this? I think the chances of 3 fried HD in 4 months in the same system due to poor drives are pretty unlikely. Here's my config:

Athlon 900mhz (usually running at 50C) w/512 generic PC133 ram
Antec 1030 case with Antec 300W power supply (inside temp: 39C)
Asus mobo running KT133 (I forget the model number)
Both WD HD were 60GB 5400RPM

Right now, my guesses are:
Poor power supply (even though it's an Antec?)
Semi-broken disk-controller (aka bad mobo, seems to me if it were broken, it sholdn't even work)
Bad AT100 ribbon
Poor power output from dormatory wall socket

My system had never hung up or froze due to overheating and I just can't figure out what is going on. Can someone offer some insight. Right now, I'm considering gutting the entire system and buy a new CPU, mobo, and power supply. I would much rather identify the specific problem and replace only one part.

Oh yeah, it's not a virus, I ran McAfee with updated definitions every night.

 

[WW]

some thoughts:

maybe the via data corruption problem?

http://www.viahardware.com/686bfaq.shtm#_Toc518065962

is airflow really bad in the hard drive bay? blow out the dust, check the hard drive temps:

download the free version of the hard drive temp checker

do you move your system often? (to lan parties on the back of your motorcycle )

is your computer on the floor or on top of a desk that isn't very stable? shakes when the drawers are slammed etc...do you live next door to the train tracks

otherwise, your idea of replacing the cables and power supply is a good one.

 

[nemo160]

his drive is only a 5400 rpm..those tend to run pretty cool..so that wouldn't be my first guess
i'd try a new cable for sure and maybe pick up a pci ide controller too just to be safe
antec psu's tend to be good, but picking up a new 350 might not be a bad idea
then install the latest 4 in 1's

 

[chopsticker]

The case has only been moved 2x in the past 6 months and it is not near any sort of furniture that would cause it to rattle or shake.

 

[Rhuwyn]

I will tell you that one reason is that Western Digital sucks Monkey Balls. They have good performace but a high failure rate. Other then that it could be a problem with VIA but i would bet that you have just had bad luck with Western Digital drivers as i had....you also might want to check your power supply output. I had a friend that had 3 harddrives fry because of 14+ volts comeign from the 12 volt wires from the power supply. He had the same problem with bad sectors.