Windows XP

[Tino22]

I'm a UGA student and have had the same laptop for three years now
 However it crashed recently and now when I turn it on it lets me log into Windows under my account but then freezes. I can access safe mode but system restore has not been helpful and i've run norton, a spy bot program and an anti malware program that are all on my computer from a virus i had a hwile back. even when i am allowed to log in, it goes to my background and just stops loading.

i'm not sure if this is relevant but there is a clicking noise the computer is making? kind of sounds like when you push the mouse button

any suggestions? Thanks

[street1 (RIP)]

Sounds like your hard drive is failing.

[Tino22]

failing? is that normal for a dell laptop with three years use?

[Raptor]

I had a hard drive fail on me within a day of purchase.

So anything beyond that is pure luck if you ask me. 

You'll want to diagnose your hard drive, but go into safe mode and make back-ups of important files first.
Diagnostic software can be obtained on the hard drive manufacturer's webpage.