One learns best the perils of overheating first hand

Forgive me the lack of updates of late, I have some pictures I'm truly interesting in posting and mayhaps a story or two. Though, speaking of stories, perhaps "have" is too stong of a word in reference to said pictures.
Two nights previous I awoke from a sound sleep to a noise. A noise best described as a "whir, click, whirr, click." While in such a state between sleep and wakefulness I could not describe it as distinctly animal or mechanical. This being said, I approached my laptop from behind which the sound was eminating, hoping not to discover some large and angry member of arthropodia waiting for me. I found instead the sound coming from my external hard drive. At this point I could read no deeper meaning behind this sound. It was an obstacle to sleep and that alone.
Some hours later, I awoke and as my memories flooded back into my consciousness I began to form an idea about the implications of my unexpected alarm clock. The end result of this thought process: that sound is a bad thing.
Perhaps then it was only temporary. Perhaps through some magical force of will, or Robert Deniro, it had healed itself. This, sadly was not to be.
I searched the internet for some solutions, and found some help. If this is to be believed, I'll be able to ressurect my hard drive long enough to retrive my data and put it on DVD. I shall wait three days, and then roll open my freezer drawer. We shall see if I am met by a host of angels uttering hosannas unto the highest, or by the stench of the tomb, of the rotting of thousands and thousands of photos, MP3's and assorted irreplacible data.

Update: Upon the recieving the blow of sudden catastrophe, large or small, one hovers for a while living in shock and despair before deciding whether to surrender to apathy or to rebuild. This time of dumb shock may vary, depending on myriad factors. Size of the set-back, amount of warning and so forth. For now, the recovery efforts have failed and I shall find a seat and speak Japanese to bartenders until I am unware that they make such things as hard drives.