Thanks everybody for your help!
I actually got a very helpful HP tech guy on the phone and we did some test on the computer and come to find out it was the hard drive that was defective.
They will be sending out another hard drive as well as a tech (since I upgraded my warranty to 2 years - $80) to install it for me. I will try to install it myself however ahead of time since the tech can't get here until next Saturday.
THANKS AGAIN!