It’s a brand new out of the box external, connected via FW 800. However, I did end up starting Yasu last night before leaving the office and this morning I’ve breezed through almost 20 mins of video without any crashes. That’s a first in a long while. Seems like just cleaning up the poor computer solved the issue. However I do suspect that part of it may still be communication/speed issues to the hdd. I’ll see how it goes the rest of the day.
I got rid of the preference files manually just chucking them in the trash and resetting everything myself. I have not cleaned the chaches yet, so I will try that. If anything else comes to mind I’ll be glad to hear it.