Intel iMac suddenly Slow

Hello all,
My Intel iMac that I've had for just about a year and a half has suddenly started moving really slow (almost like it fell into molasses). Anything I do gives me the spinning beach ball first.
I reinstalled the OS and it took almost 10 hrs to do so. I have a 500 GB G-Drive for back up and it's now just as slow copying files from it (9 Hrs to copy 9 GB of files for example).
Any ideas as to what may be wrong and how to fix it?

If you purchased Apple Care then you have a 3 year warranty however if you did not purchase the additional Apple Care then you have the standard 1 year warranty which would have been up this January 08. There is also a Utility you can use to check your hard drive called TechTool Deluxe that would have been included with your Apple Care box if you have it.
Otherwise running Apple Hardware Test would probably be a good thing to check and make sure there are not any other hardware issues. Insert the original gray iMac install disk, restart and hold down the "d" key. Run the Extended test.
George

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