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It seems to be is that it is reading data from your wow folders. When you run lesser applications, they usually don't constantly read data for that long. It will read data, then store it into ram. The game would be a different scenario since it may be pulling continuously new data. I will say though, it wasnt the sound I was expecting to hear. I was expecting something much louder, and shorter in length. That is pretty drawn out. However, unfortunately the case above seems to be the problem your having.
I use to have a computer that somehow one of the fans on the back of the case got loose or something. Whenever that fan turned on I had a noise similar to what you are hearing, but it was constant and never died out or stopped. Took me forever to figure out that it was because the mounting bracket on the fan was just a smudge not snug enough and was making it rattle against the chassis. I fixed it by wedging some sort of plastic rubbery material in on one of the contact points. Just for the sake of doing it, you might want to try loading up WoW with the cover off and just pay attention to the noise and fan rotation speed. See if you can pick up on any trends. If this is a bust, it's definitely going to be the HDD then.
I'll say though, before you try anything else. Make sure you back up all your files. Actually, just doing this might even solve your mystery. If you take a file of beefy size and try to move it so that the HDD has to read/write then it should make this noise again. If it does, you have your answer. If it does not however, then look at your CPU heatsink fan, or maybe your GPU fan if you have one. Also make sure that there aren't any loose cords in the case that are near any fans. The blades could maybe be hitting on a dangling cord and that could be causing a similar sound. Although, I'll admit this is a long shot. It definitely sounds like a hard drive spinning with something in contact with it.
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