My Macbook Pro, circa 2007, does not start up correctly.  It gets stuck opening Finder.   Does this sound like a Hard Drive or other hardware?

Hello.  Need a little help. My Mac Book Pro is having start-up issues.  I am running Snow Leopard on this computer.  It is bootcamped up to run a PC portion as well.  I started having this problem a few weeks ago.  I tried to back up the drive, but it would not even let me do that.  I wiped it clean (I had a relatively new back-up and it is secondary computer) and reinstalled the OS.  It worked well for a couple of days, but started getting held up with opening the Finder on start-up and it woudl just get stuck.  I am more than willing to pull the drive and install a new hard drive, but that might not be the main issue so I am looking for some assistance before the next wipe out.
When it was working for a couple of days, I tried to install OS X Lion, but it would not allow me to do so (some installation failure).
Anyway, should I retire this computer or install a new harddrive....
Any advice is welcome.
Dan

a brody, I will take a look.  The internal drive works (i.e., the battery, it spins, etc.) it just has a bit of trouble recognizing all CD's so I tend to use the external one since it works consistently.  Do you still think this might be the issue?  The apple store told me a week after my extended warranty ran out that the drive should be replaced but that an external drive is not an isse, but that was a while back and this problem just started.

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