IMac is completly messed up

Hey everyone. I have no idea what happened, but I just moved, and when I set up my iMac, it started to work very VERY slowly, when opening programs, files, or even just turning on. After some Google research I opened Disc Utility and clicked Verify Disc Permissions. After about 30 minutes I had a list of about 1,000+ items, so I went out, purchased a 1TB external HDD to do a backup of my music and pictures first.
After formatting my new external HDD (Mac OS X (Journaled)) and set it as my Time Machine drive, it will never go past "Calculating changes...." While my main internal HDD is partitioned, I turned the Windows part off in the Time Machine preferences, because right now I just want to delete everything and start over.
So now I have an iMac almost too slow to be of any use, a new $100 HDD that will not back up, and a very big headache. I was going to just give up and call AppleCare, but I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions before doing anything.
To all who help, a million thanks to you!!
Message was edited by: KenCochran (Fixed Typos)

Ken,
First Verify the disk (not the permissions). If you recently moved, perhaps the iMac didn't have a smooth ride to your new dwelling. If it is a hard disk problem, the last thing you want to do is spin it more than necessary by making incomplete clones.
Secondly, there are hardware diagnostics on the OS X install disk that came with your iMac, if you have the disk available. If you used the DVD to verify the hard drive in the step above, leave it in the drive, and boot the iMac while holding D down. You can loop the test and let it run for a while (overnight would be good if possible.) See if that gives you an indication if something went wrong during the move.

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