Yeah look first of all the OS 98 ain't the most stable but if you got a processor and hd that ain't up to speed with a new drive or new system about a year old or less you might want to look at getting a faster drive and maybe a newer system with the highest processing power, because if you either let your drive get too fragmented with protools you gonna have problems or worse if one of the drivers gets corrupted....sounds like you are strapped for space too possibly, remember your hard drive is swapping virtual memory to run everything at the same time your physical mem is being used.......basically start saving your duckies for one of those cheap dell or hp systems for like 600....it's worth it....