Going into my hard drive causes mac pro to lock up like fort knox

Question

Hi, I have been a mac user for just a hair over a year.(Apple will not help me with anything)
All has been swell until now.
If I go into my hard drive my computer locks right up. I can do
nothing to move it along. The only option I have is to hold down the
power button for six seconds, which kills me and the computer a little
each time. I booted up the computer using the mac install disc and I
used disk utility to "repair" the disk. It reported the disk was "OK".
I thought swell, and went into documents on the hard disk and it
locked my computer up again. I let it sit there for an hour and
nothing moved. apple/option/esc does not do anything. I went into time machine and
went to the documents there and it locked up the computer too. I went into finder and went to documents and it locked up the computer. I went into other areas of the hard drive and it locked up the computer. The funny thing is I can go on the internet, use programs, read email, and everything works fine. Can anyone guide me in
the right direction in solving this problem I am facing?
Specs:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP21.007F.B06
SMC Version: 1.15f3
troubled drive:
ST3750640AS P:
Capacity: 698.64 GB
Model: ST3750640AS P
Revision: 3.BTH
Serial Number: 5QD1P*
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Bay Name: "Bay 1"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 698.32 GB
Available: 328.75 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
second drive:
SAMSUNG HD753LJ:
Capacity: 698.64 GB
Model: SAMSUNG HD753LJ
Revision: 1AA01112
Serial Number: S13UJ1CQ6***
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Bay Name: "Bay 2"
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Boot OSX:
Capacity: 128 MB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point:
<Edited by Moderator>

Answer 1

Sounds like itneeds some good basic maintenance and troubleshooting. Stop using this drive. Start trashing temp files, and off loading good files.
Everytime you freeze and do a hard restart, the chance that the journal, directory, file system and data are compromised increases, in spite of the "OKAY" from Disk Utility's repair routines it is not reliable. And leads to false sense of security. Disk Utility only checks the basic directory, not the files themselves.
It may be something like a damaged Finder plist/preference, or worse, but either you look for an easy fix, or just start cleaning up and moving files and system to a good drive and system.
You may have bad blocks on your drive causing all this. Or not. TechTool can detect bad sectors, but not map them out. (Deluxe is part of AppleCare; or Pro, commercial version).
Start using SuperDuper if you don't already, and Disk Warrior, premiere for disk repairs.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
What you need to be doing is rebuild your system from the foundation up.
You may need to check out Data Rescue II demo from Prosoft Engineering to recover files.
I would begin by installing OS X on another drive, or restoring from TimeMachine. Create/name an "emergency" boot drive partition. Doesn't need to be that large. Keep it handy just for doing repairs and maintenance. Keep another as a clone of your working system and backup - in addition to TimeMachine.
You may want to start by erasing the drive (not just the OS volume) with a 7-way write (not just zero all, it does NOT do a reliable safe job mapping out bad blocks) and restore from TimeMachine. Or work with a new drive.