Vista rootkit issue? All legit software. Open an .wav folder with a few wav files and hard-drive goes 100% endlessly

Hi

I have Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed on my new HP laptop.

Every time I go to open a folder that has audio, ripped from a CD, in .wav
format, my hard-drive goes overtime, running almost 100% constantly. System
responsiveness to a single-click is about 30 to 60 seconds. This is the
definite trigger, (the folder).

I have Norton Internet Security 2007, not my first choice of av software
installed, and I also run Windows Defender. I update regularly and run IE
with very tight security settings.

I recently purchased and installed Ashampoo Burning Studio 7, as my burning
needs are for simple document backups.

I ripped my first audio CD since I purchased today and that's when my
problems began.

I have stopped and permanently disabled the Windows Search Index service to
prevent further hard-drive activity.

I do own Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9.

Nothing on this laptop has been an issue since today and ripping that audio
CD into .wav. By the way, when I rip a CD, Ashampoo connects to the Internet
to collect the music CD's track and album details.

I have tried a couple of free rootkit detection app's but nothing yet. NIS
2007 is supposed to detect them...

I don't need to rip CD's normally or in future but I do want to know if I
have a rootkit and/or DRM issue on this laptop.

Wadda ya think?

Many thanks

Bob