I've used Hiren's Boot CD in the past, simply because it's a huge collection of tools in one place. But I don't think there's a USB version. vUltimateBootCD is another collection of tools, but perversely you need a CD drive to prepare the USB version.
Since you say you're a newbie, maybe none of the linuxes will help you much. Maybe you can stick with Windows for a while and check out SMART, etc. with CrystalDiskInfo (or one of the many tools that do the same thing). Have you read any system logs yet? They can also be a good source of information. Also see if booting in safe mode fixes the freeze problem.
I don't think there are any magic tools on a Linux distribution that don't have Windows equivalents, if your computer runs long enough for you to download and use them.