Directory corrupted again & again

Question

I'm having a recurring problem with directories becoming fragmented/corrupted on my old computer.
B&W G3, OS9.2.1, 896ram, 2 HD: 80G & 60G. Processor upgraded to 1GHz (PowerLogix hardware).
Original factory HD has been replaced a few months ago. Slave drive is less than 2 yrs old.
I have been using Disk Warrior to repair directories as they occasionally become fragmented. The alerts from DW, or alerts from the finder are becoming more frequent. Sometimes an app will crash/quit and I'll receive alerts re directory corrupted, or various references to file structures, trees, etc. are damaged. Restart from other volume (partition) or DW cd, run DW & aok.
But why is this occurring so frequently?
Controller card on disk going bad? Not likely, my guess, because another volume on slave drive is sometimes corrupted.
Faster processor causing problem? I was running a 900MHz proc, and had no problems. New processor going bad (early failure)?
My suspicions are system-related files, but which ones?
This is getting out of hand, I'm spending too much valuable time rebuilding directories.
Please help, this has got to stop.
Greg
G5 dual 1.8   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   2G ram, 80G & 160G HD's

Answer 1

Gmusic
While not claiming to have the definitive answer to your query, there are some observations that I can make.
Your configuration seems to be one that you have chosen for audio or video recording/editing. I sympathize with your desire for a responsive setup for that purpose, but I wonder whether you have pushed the whole just that iota beyond its intrinsic capabilities. My Beige G3 has a 400MHz processor, giving a 12x multiplier of the system bus. It has max. RAM (768MB) and two drives of 6GB and 40GB. It is supported by OS 9.2.2. With Spark 2.6 (wave editor) it is quite comfortable. Because there is another Mac with OS 10.2.8 and Spark 2.82, I push the Beige no further for the moment.
I suggest that you update to OS 9.2.2 to begin with, and go over the specification, quality and match of your RAM. I should also remove it, clean the contacts (along, not across) with a soft pencil eraser, and then blow off the detritus and clean the slots with canned air. You are operating your RAM under pressure (metaphorically speaking), and need to be assured that it can withstand the assault.
Even though the chief virtue of 9.2.x is to work with OS X in Classic Mode, there is also better stability as a standalone from 9.2.2 than from 9.2.1. If the foregoing does not improve matters, then, to the extent possible, revert to the prior state of each recent upgrade, one at a time and in the order most recent to least recent. As a reversion appears to reestablish the stability that you had or wish for, you can consider the upgrade as a potential cause of the present difficulty.
In the interests of a leaner and tighter System, there may also be some virtue in having an alternative configuration in Extensions Manager with the superfluous components disabled during your specialized work. Editing, burning to optical disk and so on are patently of continuing interest, but silly voice management may not be integral to your work, and there are many more potential candidates.
Apple IIe; 68K: 11DT + 4PB; PPC: 5DT + 3PB; G3: 6DT     System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x