Ok, I've got a question for all you hardware wonks out there. I was doing some updating on my laptop when my hard drive started making more noise than it usually does (clicking and whirring noises) and my computer locked up as tight as Win95 on a bad day. So, I forced a hard reset and the computer came back running slower than I could believe (7 minutes to boot on a 2.4 ghz machine). I took it back to best buy, and they told me it would take them 3 weeks to get me a new hard-drive via my insurance with them. So, I decided to just a buy a new one. But, out of curiousity, I tried turning it on today (48 hours after the weird noises started) and things seem fine. No unusual noises, it seems to be running fast, and I can't seem to find anything to complain about. What gives? Should I go out and buy a new hard-drive? (Yes, all my stuff is backed up now, so I won't really lose anything) or should I just kick back and play wait and see? For now, all new work will be stored on the system's server, but I just can't explain this series of events. Oh yeah, although I was working in Linux, my XP partition is corrupted and won't boot. I don't really care, I just thought it was funny that Linux locked up, but Windows died. Thanks for your ideas. --andy