Spinning pinwheel destroying my sanity

I have an iBook, about 5 years old but with a new hardrive, and I'm having trouble booting up. The computer starts up fine--goes to the desktop image with all my folders in sight--but when I try to do anything (open a folder, say), I get the dreaded progress indicator, or spinning pinwheel. I've run Techtool Deluxe and everything checks out fine. Does anyone have any clues as to how to fix this problem. As it stands now, I can't use the computer at all.
Thanks!

You're Welcome danielbrian77!
Start with Repair Disk & Repair Permissions. Instructions posted below. Post the outcome.
THESE ARE THE STEPS FOR USING DISK UTILITY TO REPAIR YOUR HD
1.Insert the System Install disk, Mac OS X CD-ROM disk, or Restore DVD disk, then restart the computer while holding the C key. Use the System disk, of the OS, that is currently installed.
2.Once started up from CD or DVD, on the Menubar at the top of the screen, choose Disk Utility from the Installer contextual menu for Panther, or Utilities for Tiger.
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from disc to access Disk Utility.
3.Click the First Aid tab.
4.Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5.Select your Mac OS X volume, if necessary.
6.Click Repair. If DU reports errors it has fixed, re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported.
7.Repeat steps 5 & 6, but select the Hard Drive this time. It's usually the first listed with the manufacturer's model number. Make note of the S.M.A.R.T. status.
8.When finished, select Quit Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
9.Select Quit Installer from the Installer menu.
10.In the resulting pop-up window, choose restart.
11.After the computer has restarted, you can eject the CD.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP until the only messages reported are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
ali b

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