System keeps hanging

[AMD2600]

So I recently bought myself an MSI CX61 and it worked great until a day after I bought it. It suddenly began having these moments where it would hang briefly then resume again. This brief moment ranged from a slight hiccup to a full one to two second freeze. I took a quick video a while back as a reference, I apologize for the terrible quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGzE-UxgPJw
Notable times:
0:06, 0:52, 1:24, 1:35, 3:40
The ones in bold were the worst freezes of the bunch.
Anyways, I've gone through a process of weaving down potential causes and the cause I am most sure on is the HDD. I ran the resource monitor next to my game and, from as far as I have observed, every time I experienced a freeze, the Highest Active Time would spike up from 0-5% to 40-100%. Longer lasting freezes (similar to the one at 3:40 in the video) made it spike to 100% while the smaller ones were somewhere between 40 and 90%.
I also noticed these spikes occurring outside my games as well including my internet browser and any other application that I may be using at the moment. The highest active time would just spike up to 100%. I have occasionally had it spike when I was doing nothing, but looking at the resource monitor.
Here is an example of how the resource manager looked like after the system froze briefly when using MSPaint (coincidentally I was saving another screenshot of the resource manager when this occured):


One more thing that might be good to mention is when the Highest Active Time shoots up, I've noticed my laptop makes a particular sound like as if something is booting up. From how it sounds, I think it could be the hard drive. I can only hear it when I am not running any games since the fan is more quiet, so I am unsure if this happens in all cases.
Anyways, I am at a complete standstill on this as I've never experienced anything quite like this in my experience with computers. I've looked around online for potential solutions and the ones I encountered either did not work, or no solution was reached. Anyone know what is the exact issue and and a solution to negate this problem? I'll be glad to provide any additional info that may help in a diagnosis.

Thanks


Oh and here are the more detailed specifications of my laptop:
Intel i5-3210M @ 2.5 GHz (4 CPUs)
6 GB DDRIII RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT 640M (2 GB DDR3 Dedicated)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (used on less demanding programs)

 

[phil22]

Any suspicions about the state of the hard drive can be confirmed by testing it with free diagnostic software from the drive manufacturer. Because it's a system drive you can't test it properly with any Windows-based software, so you''l need to use a DOS bootable CD version.

I normally suggest SeaTools for DOS, but myself and others have had several problems with it, including it not recognising USB mouse or keyboard when many other DOS-based utilities (like the Hitachi one below) have no problem recognising them.

I therefore recommend you use the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test from here: http://www.hgst.com/support/index-files/simpletech-legacy-downloads#DFT

Click the last download link "CD IMAGE (2,720 K)" which will give you an ISO file.
Then download and install IMGBurn: http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Use IMGBurn to create a CD from the Hitachi ISO file, then boot your laptop from it.

 

[AMD2600]

Just tried out the tool you provided there in the link. It boots up fine, but for some odd reason it cannot find my storage devices. One thing I did forget to mention is that my HDD is split into two partitions, C and D. Could that play any role towards the initial problem or the problem I am facing with the boot program right now?