Ubuntu :: Windows Boot Also Took Much Longer Than Usual - Screen Wouldn't Appear

Before I begin, here are some computer specs:

Toshiba Satellite C655
2 GB Ram
250 GB HDD
Intel Celeron 900 Joules / 2.2 GHz
64 bit

So, a little backstory. For christmas I got a new laptop with Windows 7, and while Win7 is a good operating system, I wanted to try Ubuntu and see which one I liked better. I installed the 32 bit version, because I understand people run 32 bit Ubuntu on 64 bit machines with out problems. For the first few days, everything was going amazing and I was pretty much using only Ubuntu (I had a dual boot with WIn7). One day, I opened my lid to find that the log in screen wouldn't appear, so I restarted.

I wish I could remember what error I got, but everytime grub tried to load Ubuntu, it wouldn't load, it just gave me some error (it may have been a kernel panic, not sure). So I went into windows, burned a windows repair disc, and fixed the MBR to be the windows boot loader instead of grub, then deleted the Ubuntu partition. Shortly after, I tried the 64 bit Ubuntu installation, and it wouldn't even boot up after the first boot (unfortunately, can't remember the error I got then either). So I repeated the MBR fix for Windows, and just stuck with Windows for a while. However, a new problem arose. Every now and then (and in time, more frequently) everything would freeze, for 1 to 2 seconds.

It couldn't have been my RAM or anything, the computer was blazing fast when I got it. The windows boot also took much much longer than usual, until it just wouldn't boot at all. I had my father (who's much more knowledgeable at computers) to do something, and he loaded into an earlier recovery partition ran a program called CCleaner, which supposedly fixed it. However, the problem was still there, and it got worse. I tried CHKDSK, it didn't do anything. The random freeze ups kept happing more frequently and became more and more bothersome. Eventually my computer just wouldn't boot up, it would just be a blank screen after the 'Toshiba' logo.

I eventually called Toshiba and they said that I apparently deleted the original recovery partition, and needed a Windows install disc, which I don't have so I have to buy one. Until then, I decided to just do a complete install of Ubuntu (64 bit), since I figured if I just did a complete fresh install removing everything, it would fix it. Well, turns out it had the same freeze up problem. I then tried a clean install of 32 bit Ubuntu. No luck, still periodical freeze ups, sometimes if the freeze ups are longer the screen will go grey. Before all this mess Ubuntu ran perfectly. I'm fearing that it may be my hard drive that's the problem, but I'm not entirely sure. So, is there anything I can do to restore my laptop to full health with out buying a new hard drive? Unless the hard drive isn't the problem, but I don't see what else is. EDIT: I tried memtest. Here are the results: It says 'Pass complete, no errors'. What do you guys think?