IMac 27" Problems galore

I'm pretty much at my wits end with my 27" i7 iMac. Its the 4th iMac I've owned and the first to have any problems. The problem list is extensive and since I am a pro user is causing me a lot of heartache and loss of work;
*constantly grumbling hard drive (known complaint I believe)
*wireless keyboard gets disconnected randomly and quite often
*some programs - most often its itunes and logic pro - won't open. The logo bounces in the dock and then nothing. The only way I can get them to work is to restart my computer - a less than satisfactory solution.
*computer randomly wakes itself up from sleep
*when waking from sleep logic pro is often crashed and needs to be force quit.
*logic frequently crashes or runs out of memory even though I have a VERY fast machine running projects that my lesser iMacs had no problems with
*sometimes the computer refuses to shut down; even if there are no programs running
I am an experienced mac user and take good care of my machines - everything is up to date and I've tried all the troubleshooting advice I've been given by apple. Apple will not replace the machine without first replacing the HD - something that will be a gross inconvenience to me and is not guaranteed to work.
Does anyone have any fixes for any of the issues above?

comprachio wrote:
ah right I follow now. To do that I'll either have to buy another HD or wipe my bootcamp HD:( Neither is an appealing option though.
I have two external drives for backup: One for Time Machine, one for SuperDuper!. I wouldn't think about doing otherwise, as they complement each other functionally. Regardless of your current issue, I (and I think most folks) would strongly recommend that you do indeed get a second external backup drive, for a clone backup (either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner). You may as well do that now, as it will then enable you to create the clone (as I said, I believe it's something that you really should have anyway) and use it to help diagnose your current problem. And if it turns out tht your internal drive is failing, it's much easier to use a clone than TM to recover everything to a new internal drive.
I got my iMac at the start of December 2009. HD is WDC WD1001FALS-40U9B0 which is identical to the HD in my last iMac (which didn't grumble or groan).
I thought perhaps it was an old platter. Guess not.
Personally, I never had much confidence in WD drives...but I know a lot of folks who simply love them. I used to think that Seagate was the only way to go. However, I've changed my opinion of Seagate of late. In fact, I don't think any of the drive manufacturers are currently building quality products: They've off-shored most of their production to second/third-rate assemblers and suppliers and, consequently, lost significant quality oversight and control. Mind you, that's simply my opinion, but if you mouse around the newsgroups and forums and read experience-based user opinions, you might arrive at a similar conclusion.

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