Hello my computer techy friends, Im new to forums aka fresh meat. Got a small prob hope you can give me some opinions or help.

I have a 2nd computer that is running unusually slow. even after boot up it sounds like the hard drive is continually spinning for some reason, and it seems to be the source of the computer lag but Im not 100% certain. However the hard drive I am using right now is brand new (not even a week) 120Gb Maxtor with a fresh install of windows xp (plus some programs. Norton 2006, spybot, pcdoctor)
and of course some im messangers (msn, icq)

nothing else has been installed

Here is what ive tried so far

1. I did a dusting of the inside to unclog any debris or dust from all the fans, checked cpu temp everything checks out
2. checked cable connections btw im using pata not sata hd cables. but those are fine nothing defective.
3. checked power supply everything looks ok
4.used msconfig in windows and disabled some of the useless start up stuff, so minimal stuff starting up
5.ran 3 different antispy wear programs, twice once in normal mode once in safe mode
6.Ran my antivirus software (same as above once in safe mode and normal)
7.Ran Systemworks 2006, windoctor. one button check up, clean out, speed disk.

is there any other suggestions on what to do, or what the problem might be.

other facts

Computer info
Intel Pent 2.4 Ghz
1 Gb of Ram
400 watt power supply
1 optical drive (cd/cd-rw)
Hd brand new maxtor 120gb (7400 rpm) (i think 8mb cache)
new install of windows xp with sp2 (less then 5gb used on hd)

Thanks in advance everyone!

Interesting. Perhaps the Maxtor drive is broken and not able to spin up far enough? Might want to return the drive and see if you can get a replacement.

hmm any other suggestions?