Hard drive locks while writing

I have a Maxtor 8.2Gb hard drive, partitioned into two, named D: and E: (Drive C: is a 1.2Gb Seagate). All three are IDE, not SCSI.
None of the partitions causes any day to day problems, and I am frequently playing games stored on D and E. It's only when I come to install a new game to D or E from CD-Rom (Creative Labs 24X) that the aggravation starts. (C isn't used for games, since I keep all my system files on there).
During installation to either partition the system locks up - the CD drive light goes out and the hard disk light stays on. The only way I can get out of this is to press the reset switch.
Sometimes I can get the game to install by turning off all system tray programs (virus checkers, etc), and running scandisk and disk defragmenter, but recently even this hasn't worked. I've checked for viruses using the latest version of Dr Solomons, but found only a couple of W32/SKA infected files, which I've deleted and replaced with clean versions.
Note that the crash also occurs if I simply try to copy a large file (200Mb and higher) across to the drive. It seems to work OK with smaller files.
The hard disk device drivers listed in the device manager screen are: 'Primary IDE controller (dual fifo), secondary IDE controller (dual fifo) and VIA Bus Master PCI IDE controller.
No conflicts are reported.
I'm worried that I need to splash out on a new hard disk (this one is only about 18 months old), yet the fact that it's working OK normally makes me wonder if this is a hardware glitch that can be repaired.