Lots of Dropouts

There are many things that will cause dropouts. ASIO buffer size, I/O buffers. If you are using MIDI try increasing the prepare buffers. They default to 250 even though CW recommend 500. Preferences->MIDI->Playback & recording

Hard drive is unlikely to be an issue unless it's getting very fragmented. A hard drive failure is more likely to show itself as crashes.

 You mention that you are having"more" dropouts. I take this to mean that you had dropouts before you installed X1d?

 X1d could be a slightly more cpu intensive,however I have an older Q8300 chip and I have not noticed anything significant using X1d expanded on my machine,so I tend not to be quick to blame X1d in this case.

 I guess a lot of things should be considered. If your hard drive is 5400 rpm then maybe this is a contributing factor, but usually not the main culprit in situations where you have dropouts.

  Defragmenting a hard drive can make it retrieve data faster.5-7yrs is the average life expectancy of a HDD. I recently replaced my aging drive because it was getting old.

  Background operations in Win7 commonly cause dropouts on computers not adjusted/tweaked for audio recording. Additional software,especially something like Norton will cause all kinds of dropouts.

 If you push ctl+alt+delete and bring up task manager you can see what programs are using cpu resources. Maybe this can help you to see where the problem is. If using soft synths,try freezing the tracks. If recording audio with a lot of effects in your tracks try using the FX button located in your controls bar to turn off all effects and see if the system plays ok. It could be either too much on the cpu or one effect is robbing the cpu.

   Looking elsewhere here in search will turn up either links to win7 tweaks or give you links to where they are. I don't have that info at hand or i would pass it along, but I know it is on this site.

 

What plug-ins are you using? Some of the freebies are crap and shouldn't be used. 

2 or 3 VSTs per track is a bit much... Use busses where you need the same effect on multiple tracks. 

Is this a standalone PC or do you use it for other things as well?  Sounds to me like something is happening in the background (Whether its an auto update, antivirus, WLAN card, or ???) but Ive noticed since installing Expanded that I can make a drop out occur by making the system think while the Transport is in action whether its playing, recording, etc...   I assume you have been through all the usual setups with disabling antivirus, WLAN card, Power Saving Modes, Sleep/StandBy disabled, etc...?  Try dropping back to 44.1/24 on your project.   Also How Full is your Hard Drive, I know once you start exceeding the 50% capacity, it kind of effects it as well?

maybe go back to x1c (+ hotfix) if that was ok for you?