Distortion when recording in Waveform view

Recording in Waveform view is significantly different from Multitrack. In Waveform view you aren't writing directly to your final file, but to a temp file. The recording only makes it to a final file (that you can access) at the point you save it. Before that, it's vulnerable. You haven't said whether this is on a Mac or a PC, but regardless, the first thing to try is relocating your  primary temp directory, ideally to a drive of its own - an external USB drive is fine for this - and see if that makes any difference.

I have to say that we don't recommend recording in Waveform view at all - primarily because there are rather more things that can go wrong, primarily associated with the temp file situation. Recording in Multitrack view is miles safer, because your recording is written directly to the final file as you go. Even if a catastrophe occurs (like a power cut) the recording up to this point can be recovered, so this approach has a lot more going for it, quite frankly.