fried harddrive?!

[MetalMilitia]

See if you can borrow a crappy old HDD from a friend and try it with that first.
If an electiral current stong enough to destoy a hard drive got into your computer you may find other components have been fried too. However usually in these situations the PSU will take the brunt of the surge thus saving the rest of your system.

Interestingly enough its not the lighting physically hitting a cable which causes a surge, it is a large spike of interference. You get simiar spikes from most electical motors and even nuclear bombs, which is why in the event of a nuclear war the first nukes will be detoned high above a country in an attempt to fry the electrics of nuclear installations which may lauch a counter attack.