lag when I try to load explorer or other applications on t40

[dangit]

i bought a t40 recently from a dealer who bought it from ibm as an opened/new item. anyway i've been experiencing some lag when i start the computer or try to open different applications. for example, i remember on my old toshiba notebook (P4m, 512 mb) i would open explorer, and it would immediately pop up. on the t40 however, sometimes the explorer will open immediately and other times it will lag and when it lags, i will hear my hard drive "clicking". i've upgraded my ram to 512mb, but it hasn't really helped. also, i've tried to manage programs that i start with by going to start>run>msconfig . it's helped a bit, but i dunno how to tell what programs i should start with and shouldn't. maybe trial and error? finally, are there are other suggestions for making my computer run more efficiently or this is a thinkpad quirk? thanks for reading through this long post, but i've been very frusturated and woudl appreciate ur help.
-roy

[skanky]

the hard drive making a clicking sound suggests that the hard drive is at fault here.

have you ran chkdsk /f in win2k/xp's recovery console?

[dangit]

how do i run chkdks/f in windows xp?

[skanky]

you need to install the recovery console. if you're using the recovery cds, check to see if theres a I386 folder. do a start/run/browse and look for winnt32.exe, click on it which will put it into your run box. you need to add /cmdcons to the end of the line so the end product will look like this:

<path to I386 folder>\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

eg:
D:\I386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

then when you reboot you will have a choice of booting up normally or going into the recovery console. its in there where you can chkdsk /f

[JHEM]

First thing, download and run Drive Fitness Test: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Report back.

Regards,

James