Start up results in 5 minute drum roll sound

I am ready to just put my head through my monitor. Evertime I start up, it takes my 1.8 pentium, gateway with a 160 gig Maxtor drive and xp3 like five minutes to completely start up!!

I destroyed many files yesterday using reg cure to try and solve the problem. Reg Cure was a horrific error on my part. what a hatchet job program it is--on top of that it didn't solve my problem.

The hang up and drum roll happens whenever I access a large pdf file from online and sometimes with MS word and ms outlook.

Does anyone have a clue out there? It's making me sick that I have to waste so much time....staring at my computer and listening to that sickening drum roll sound!