hard drive spins really fast and loud

[Alduins Khajiit]

My hard drive has recently begun spinning fast & loud for apparently no reason. I can do anything in Windows and even reboot and after reboot the system idles fine for awhile. But in less than an hour, it starts working: the hard drive starts spinning very fast & loud and it will keep spinning fast for hours, if I let it. this is difficult as I use my computer for voice recordings

 

[Berton]

The only thing I can think of is the speed of the drive is governed by the voltage being supplied by the power supply. If the voltage is too high it will soon burn up the drive. Same for the Optical drive. One thing to be aware of is the cooling fan/s will speed up if things are dirty inside the computer such an any finned parts they are mounted on such as on the CPU or the Video adapter which can impede air flow. I'd open the computer and blow it out using canned air sold for the purpose such as Dust Off.