Thanks for the suggestions.

I am reasonably sure that it is the hard drive making that sound because I never heard the player do that before no matter what angle I tipped or carried the player at, compounded with the fact the I was hearing clicking noises coming from the hard drive that I never heard before on this last boot up. I will definitely check to see if there is a screw loose, although I doubt that is the case because the player remained stationary from the time before the problem and during the time when the problem started occurring.