I have an 8.16 year old desktop, and for the first few minutes when I turn it on it sounds like its growling really loudly. It sounds like the noise is coming from the CD drive (which doesn't work) but when I open the CD case while it's making the noise it doesn't stop.

I think it might also be the fan. My friend is coming over this weekend to help me clean it out because I haven't cleaned out the fan in 8 years.

My mom thinks it might be the hard drive about to crash. I'm not sure...any suggestions or what not?

It's a compaq, 512mb RAM, no viruses.