Apparently shortly after I left for school there was a serious of power surges of sorts that affected certain things in the house. The lights didn't flicker, according to my mom, and the clocks were still correct. However, when I got home I find that my computer has been restarted and is sitting at the Yoper Linux login screen (as it's the first one on the LILO list and is thus automatically booted if I don't tell it otherwise). I think that's awkward that my computer restarted while my clock is at the right time, but I only needed to quickly check my mail so I attempt to login. Well, it goes _VERY_ slow - so I just press the reset button and plan to boot into Windows. Everytime it sits at my motherboard logo screen for a long time before getting into the boot manager, and when I select Windows I get a "Disk Read Error" and for Linux it just more or less freezes. I had a Ubuntu Linux Live CD around, so I tried using that  but after it loaded my computer would restart. Luckily I have an Ubuntu Linux install CD as well, so after talking to iago on the phone and stuff I decide to attempt a format (hoping that my data was just corrupt and not a dead HDD). The format is fine, but partioning fails every time. I go into my closet and look for a harddrive, the first one I find is a mere 4.3 GB, but it's enough to install Linux - so I did. Of course I can't survive with 4.3 GB of space, but it's going to have to last until a new HDD can be shipped I guess. Now, what I'm wondering is if a few simple surges could have done that. I have a surge protector hooked up and everything, and the drive was still recognized by my BIOS - it just failed when I attempted to boot. It's 120 GB Western Digital drive that I got about two or three years ago, and I'm assuming it's not under any warranty either. So, instead of spending ~$80 for a new drive, I'd much rather make sure that this is a problem that can't be fixed without it.

I also can't remember my AIM password, anyone want to brute it? :)

As far as I know it's possible that a power surge has done that type of damage. Before RMAing the drive I would try a utility like Partition Table Doctor which rescued a drive of one of my clients. If their trial version says it can recover something I am happy to borrow you my licensed full-version copy of it.

[quote]I had a Ubuntu Linux Live CD around, so I tried using that  but after it loaded my computer would restart.[/quote]That sounds so hard-drive unrelated it makes my head spin. Are you sure its actually your hard drive thats being a pain?

Yes, I'm not sure why that happened though. iago was helping me some over the phone/text messages and he said that it's most likely a dead hard-drive, but I should go ahead and try formatting/fresh install. If I got an error than that's just more evidence saying that it's dead. It seems to have formatted OK, but wouldn't allow the writing of partitions.

Stealth: That program doesn't seem to work on Linux, but from what I gather you can boot into it. Is that correct? (I've gotta leave for school in a few minutes so I didn't have time to go through the site too much.)

Yeah, it fits on a basic Windows boot disk. :)

A surge protector can be rendered completely after only one or two surges, even the most expensive of protectors. It is recommended to get a new surge protector after a brownout, or a series of surges. [/info]

I didn't see your opening info tag. :). Omg syntax error lawl.

Yeah, I read in a book once 'I know people who have had their houses struck by lightening without a surge protector and their computers were just fine, and people with surge proectors getting their computers fried."

If it matters to anyone, the Macintosh computers have built in surge protectors. One for the crew, Kane!