Laptop Hard Drive Problem

[lostinthought]

Sorry this isn't poker related - I've been looking on the web for the appropriate info, but can't seem to find it - can a computer savvy 2+2er offer advice?

I have the dell inspiron 8600 with the 60mb hard drive. I haven't really had any problems with it until last night. Performance was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeal slow and the hard drive(I think it's the hard drive, it doesn't sound like its coming from the speakers) will make these weird beeping sounds. It just crashed and auto-rebooted while I was trying to run defrag..

About half the space on the hard drive is taken. I haven't been anywhere with the laptop lately, so no shaking or anything while the drive has been running..

Any ideas? What's the best way to run a check on the physical status of the drive (isn't there some button you can press during boot up)?


Thanks a ton

chris