Quick grinding sound coming out of HDD followed by a freeze

Ztruker said:

Any device can cause a freeze.

Disconnect the CD/DVD drive. If the noise continues it's not that so replace the hard drive.
If it doesn't happen again then it is the CD/DVD drive and you need to replace it.

Oh. I wasn't aware of that.
Well for the past few days I haven't experienced any grinds and freezes. As soon as one happens, I will disconnect the CD/DVD and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the info!

It's pretty obvious the source of the sound and problem is the HDD. There's no point in dragging this thread any longer. Still, thanks for the suggestions and help!

Marking this as solved.
Solution: buy new HDD