Win7 destroys hard drive

Hi, I'm having a hell of a problem with Windows 7 and need help.
I received Windows 7 Pro dvd in October 2009 (Corporate retail)
I have a fairly new PC with 160 gig SATA C: drive and 120 gig IDE D: drive.
I install Windows 7 on SATA drive.
I goto all hardware sites and get latest Win7 drivers and install them.
I am a C/C++ developer so I install Borland Builder5, Watcom and MinGW as I use them all.
I also play the odd FPS games for relaxing

Now for a period of time week, several weeks maybe, Win7 works 100%, no problems what so ever.
Then suddenly the PC will freeze, maybe in middle of a game, maybe while browsing the net or just testing a program.
Sometimes if I press Alt+Ctrl+Del the Task Manager menu appears and from there I get out of the problem.
BUT.... and this is where the problems come in...
Most times, after pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del nothing happens, you can press as many times as you like but nothing happens, keyboard and mouse are still active.
This I now know is disastrous and I know at this point that Win7 has destroyed my hard drive as the only way out is to manually restart the PC using the on/off button.
Now when the PC tries to reboot it says 'Invalid Media' after a while and stops.
At this point the Repair disk is useless as it only offers a 3 stage Chkdsk and not a 5 stage as required.
I install an old 80 gig hard drive with Windows Xp on it, boot that and set a schedule for the faulty hard drive to be chkdsk (scan for bad sectors) on next boot.
I reboot the PC, and the 5 stage chkdsk runs, takes about an hour.
Now if I boot this Win7 drive it says 'NTLDR is missing' and now I put in my repair disk and install the image backup I made soon after the original installation.
At this point everything works 100% again, until next time.

1. Have have tried a new hard drive.
2. I have replaced the motherboard.
3. I have replaced the memory.
4. I have upgraded to a 650 watt PSU from a 450 watt.

I do not have too many things installed on this PC as its a work horse.
I have Avast antivirus which reports all ok.

This crash procedure has now happened 7 times and if I do not solve it soon, I'm going back to Xp as I tried that during December and January and that worked 100% no problems at all.

Any idea's or help would be greatly appreciated as I really like Windows 7 and would like to stick to it.

Joe.

Please list the drivers you are installing and complete your hardware profile if you have not already done so. I suspect that you are using an nVidia-based chipset and have installed some chipset software that is incompatible. What you are experiencing is indicative of a BIOS/chipset/driver incompatibility. Removing one of these factors by way of a BIOS or driver update is likely to solve the issue. One last question -- AHCI or ATAPI mode for the SATA drive?

Thanks for the reply, looks like there is hope

Please list the drivers you are installing and complete your hardware profile if you have not already done so.

Click to expand...

I did complete the profile when I registered but here it is again:
Type: Intel P4 - Core 2 Duo
PSU: 650 watt CoolMaster (original was 450 watt)
CPU: E6850 - 3 gig CPU
Mobo: Gigabyte EP43-UDL3 (original was Intel Dragontail Peak)
Memory: 4 gigs Samsung 800mhz (original was Kingmax)
Graphics: nVidia 8800GT512
Mouse: Logitech G5
Monitor: Acer 19" LCD
C: Drive: 160 gig SATA Seagate (original was Samsung)
D: Drive: 120 gig IDE

Drivers.
Mobo: As recommended by gigabyte site. (did not use cd supplied)
nVidia: 196.21
Mouse: Logitech_G5_Setpoint480.exe

One last question -- AHCI or ATAPI mode for the SATA drive?

Click to expand...

ATAPI

Just want to add also that the first 3 or 4 times it crashed, I did complete new installations from scratch.
It was only after December that I was informed about the image option and went back to Win7.

[edit]
LOL, just seen the 'My System Specs' at the bottom - nice touch