Hard Disk Dying?

[the who]

Hey, today my computer is acting like it has issues. It takes forever to react. I open my computer and double clicking on c: takes forever to execute or open any files in it. It constantly in the corner says not responding and then it finally loads. The computer seems really sluggish and it acts like its 5mhz even though it is 2ghz. Any ideas what's wrong with it? The hard drive seems to lag/hesitate to load my stuff.


What should I do?


AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512 MB DDR PC2700
80gb Hard Drive
Asus A7N8X


Thanks

 

[the who]

Please, if this dies I'm screwed.

 

[versello]

Does any odd noises eminate from the HD? I'm not talking about normal chirping noises either...

Repeated HD lights perhaps?

Otherwise it could be some process hog.

 

[the who]

The hard drive doesn't make any weird noises. I think the computer was overheating because I took the side cover off and restarted and it seems normal again. Scared me for a second