um...that dont sound good, i had taht before. by any chance how old is the hdd? cause i had a 99 maxtor 3gig(it was pimp, fast seek and spinup times) then it did that for about 2 weeks and it just died. so maybe its time to find ur restore disks or ur win instal disk and back up ur files to a usb jump drive or anoutehr hd if avail or even a cd, then head out to the local pc place and pick up a new hd. if u do do that, go walmart. they got some good silent 80gb wd's for about 55$