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Running chkdsk is a good idea in any regard, and you should do it anyways.
Regarding hard drive utilities, you should look up what your hard drive is and go to the manufacturer's website where you can download utility programs for their hard drives.
SMART is the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology which, in a nutshell, records problems and errors the hard drive is having with itself (not necessarily the data like you'd clear up with chkdsk and such) and reports a warning to you if a certain number of them occur which indicate possible failure. You'll need to go into your BIOS (press <F2> or <DEL> to access Setup on boot) and check to see if SMART is enabled.
It is recommended you back up your data as the sound and freezing can be an indicator of hard drive failure.
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