HDD not responding

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
You don't show much at all about your machine
See the links above my signature on how to fill in your system spec's page.

Depending on your processor and amount of memory can make or break speed of how fast a drive can load even a local drive.

It can also have bad sectors which will effect loading as well as fragmentation.
Obviously not a new hdd unless like stated it had a lot of files on it but the C drive will usually fragment unless you manually run defragment hdd
Of course you wouldn't defragment a ssd :)

Hi,
Yep dual core processor so yea it would be slow
Intel® Pentium® Processor 2020M (2M Cache, 2.40 GHz) Specifications

Monitor your temperatures and post what it states
Save this to your downloads folder and right click the zip folder and select Extract all
Download Real Temp 3.70 | techPowerUp


Open it and you'll get a number for the temp on your taskbar also notice the load it shows too.

My Windows 7 Pro does the same thing from time to time, with other Explorer things also. I'll be listening in, learning right alongside with you. Two questions: does this often happen right after cold-post/boot or Restart of Windows? Or, often during a Windows session with things going on in the background and foreground?

Hi,
Core temp is fine
Just monitor the temps and load when the machine seems to slow down
Let us know what you show on that image looks okay the high temp is a little high 56-53c but not bad either
Post if it goes higher than that.

I just now remembered the temps being a concern, consider adding a usb-powered external cooling assembly [one giant fan or twin fans]. My two laptops were helped quite a bit with those. Get a little warm, however, almost never get hot anymore.