CRC errors after defragmentation?

[Xylo]

I built a computer a couple of months back with a new Maxtor 250Gb MaxLine III HD. Over time, I filled up about half of the drive, and recently realized I hadn't defragmented it since installation. (I was also having some problem with a little bit of spyware.) I cleaned up the drive, removed any spyware using Spybot and Adaware, deleted a bunch of unused stuff, and decided to defrag it. (BTW, this is all in Windows XP.)

After defragmentation the computer has been running REAL real slow (much MUCH slower than it was before). I checked processes and what not, and all the spyware is gone, and nothing is taking up a bunch of CPU time or some other oddity. It would just appear that sometimes the machine will pretty much "hang" for 20-30 seconds somewhat randomly, but fairly often (once a minute or so). Twice, I've gotten CRC (cyclical redundancy check) errors.

I'm currently running chkdsk on the drive, and I'm not yet sure if it's stuck at 22% or just taking a real long time (at 250Gb, it should reasonably take a number of hours, so it may just be slow). Aside from possibly defrag having moved data to bad sectors on the disk, can anyone think of what else may be causing these sorts of problems?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...

 

[Xylo]

Ok, it definitely frozen on the physical disk check at 22% (left it there for over an hour, no go)...I've rebooted, but not sure what to do next. Try an alternative disk checking tool??