Alright tried some more things. Forgot to mention that I was trying the Linux Live CD's without any hard drive powered. Apparently some hard drive is required. When the working one was given power, Knoppix loaded. Then, I tried it with both hard drives powered. Worked again. I've successfully transfered all my data on the "laser" hard drive over to the seemingly more functional one. The sound, obviously, is still persistent. Over time it quiets down a little bit but it has yet to stop at any given point. Next, after the transfer of data is finished, I will see if Windows will boot up again.
Incidentally, Knoppix still didn't detect the internet with the working network card of my roommate. But now I don't know if that's because of the ethernet cable or something else
