What is wrong with the internet(or my computer?

What's wrong with my personal computer?

• Here's the gist of what happened: I was browsing on the internet when the computer screen of my my Sony Viao (bought sometime during the mid 2000's) suddenly froze while a noise was being emitted for over the length of a minute. After the PC was no longer emitting the sound and the screen is still frozen, I tried crashing the PC by holding down the power button, but it wouldn't turn off. his led me to unplugging the PC in order to turn it off. I then plugged it back in and turned it on, but now the computer screen no longer receives any input from the PC, leaving nothing but a black screen with nothing to show. I tried crashing the computer again but wound up having to unplug it again. It's been nearly a week and this has been bugging me since I have to resort to using computers at school just to do work, and I'd like to know what happened. Here are a few theories I've came up with: A. Mal-ware of some sort (virus, spy-ware, ect.) B. My PC overheated and sustained damage C. My computer is too old and simply broke down D. Something went wrong with the hardware (this would explain why I'm unable to crash the computer) E. Something went wrong with the software/Windows XP. What do you think happened with my Sony Viao and what can I do to fix it?

• Answer:

  Sounds like the hard drive has died -- completely.  The noise would have been either the bearings seizing and trying to keep spinning, or the read/write heads grinding into the discs.  I hope your backup is fairly recent!