Something is wrong - Macbook Pro

I am hoping that someone may have some experience with this problem that I am having: 15" Macbook Pro unibody (purchased just before the i7 processor refresh). With almost every operation, the computer freezes for a 2-5 minute period - I get the spiral mouse pointer indicator indicating that the computer is busy. I have tried everything that I can think of - from cleaning the hard drive to running the HD cleaning software. I am wondering if the could have been created from a shock to the hard drive - it took a pretty good bump the other day while sitting on the coffee table. Any suggestions? Thanks if advance.

It's possible the shock could have knocked the heads out of alignment slightly enough that it takes longer to access the data. Since hard drives are so inexpensive and easy to swap out, it wouldn't hurt to buy a new one and replace the one you have.

Also, if you haven't already, make a backup ASAP. Use Time Machine or one of the several cloning applications available: SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

If anything's been knocked out of alignment the read/write hits can go down the tubes, resulting in poor I/O performance. I'd agree.. I'd swap out that disk.