[Servant of the Nine]

A better guess is that power surges are destroying your computer. Surge protectors burn out if they take a big hit and have to be replaced. Get a new surge protector, an expensive one, not junk.

I do not beieve there is any software method of destroying a hard drive or motherboard. It is possible to program a video card to destroy a monitor.

So9

[wbill]

You're right about the surge protector. Urban legends aside, there are no viruses in the wild that can destroy a motherboard.

If you have a modem, be sure that the surge suppressor includes a phone jack and plug your modem into it. Almost all of the surge related damage that I've seen has been caused by lightning running in on the phone lines.

Depending on the size of your hard drive, I'd suggest a tape backup. It's the cheapest way to archive large amounts of data. Burnable DVDs would work as well, but hey're still pretty expensive.

[ThePythonicCow]

Software typically won't destroy a motherboard, but it could modify the eprom (bios settings) - making the motherboard behave as if destroyed, unless you know how to fix it.

[occam's chainsaw]

Get a new surge protector, an expensive one, not junk.

A few quick words of advice - the joule rating is the most important factor here. The higher the joule rating, the better the surge protector. Don't be fooled into paying more for a surge protector just because it has pretty gold connectors.

I highly recommend reading this article.