my computer died!

It finally happened. After years of problem-free computer ownership, I finally had a hard drive crash. It started out with occasional clicking noises, and then the system would hang when I went to reboot. Eventually, it turned off for good and wouldn't boot back up. I tried problem solving it - disconnected all peripherals, swapped out the ram, replaced the CMOS battery, and tried some new IDE cables. But nothing fixed the problem. Lucky for me, the drive is still under warranty for another three months, and I managed to back up everything from the drive to DVD-R before it crashed for good.

What is really strange is that a number of my neighbors have been reporting computer trouble in the last two weeks. I am wondering if there may be a connection. We have been seeing lots of inclement weather lately, including some dazzling lightning storms. I always try to disconnect my PCs during extreme weather, but I don't always get the chance. Now I'm just worried that if some lightning fried the system, there may be other issues with the motherboard that I won't see until I have mounted the replacement drive.

It is also a bit discouraging that this is the first PC that I would have a hard drive failure with, and it happens to be the fist PC that I built myself. :(