I'm pretty sure I have found the cause of this problem. WD Anywhere Backup.
This is a backup program that comes with a Western Digital external hard drives. After uninstalling this program the red flag dissapeared - not to mention that my system is much more stable now.
So if anyone is running Norton 360 alongside WD Anywhere Backup and is having issues - get rid of of WD Anywhere Backup! Thanks for everyones help on this too.