Whats the problem with my HD? URGENT

[mike84596]

Since 2 weeks ago, my HD was making this noise ( as if the HD was slowing down ). I thought it wasn't that big of a deal until later on it got progressively worse. It went from random hard drive 'slowdowns' as i call them, to the whole computer not being able to boot up. I thought it was the vista was messed up so i went out and bought win 7. Now I have win7 installed (difficult install due to corrupt files and other HD problems.) After a few chkdsk /r commands i got win7 installed and now every time i start my computer i have to run chkdsk /r to get it working normal.

Now here is the problem:
My hard drive randomly slows down for about 10-60 seconds (or just reboots itself if it takes too long) with every window open, but unresponsive. When it speeds back up it runs alright until i try to run something else or do something that has to load.
I looked at the disk usage and the monitors say that it is using all its resources to load/write things and both meters are at 100%.
Is this a physical problem? Is something wrong with my HD? (I dont want to buy another after just buying win7, which is 200$)
Im thinking that since i can use chkdsk /r to temporarily fix this, it should be something wrong with the filesystem, and not the HD itself?
Please help
Thanks, - Mike

[hddmania]

It sounds like your drive is dying. If it's still under the warranty, RMA it. Also, backup any important data while you can!!!!

[scratchy]

Check the power connector to the drive or try another one.

[mike84596]

Check the power connector to the drive or try another one.

I tightened the power cable and everything else connected to the HD just now.

[poehere]

Use RStudio and clone to another drive and try it again. This at least can save all your data on this drive. Do a back up before it is too late. You could have some bad sectors or some corrupted data on this drive. Like hddmania said RMA this drive.