Sigh...in the last 24 hours I have both lost a hard drive and (probably) fried my mobo in two separate instances. My main hard drive (a Maxtor) just kinda randomly got a page file error and caused a BSOD. Thinking nothing of it (except that it was my first actual BSOD), I powered down hard and restarted. On the subsequent reboot, my BIOS wouldn't even recognize it. I put in my RMA with Maxtor, then installed and configured Red Hat 9 on my spare drive.

After realizing that I only had one hard drive left, I shut down about 6 hours later and opened my case to replace the 3-connector ribbon cable with a 2-connector rounded one I had laying around to reduce some cable clutter. I push the motherboard end of the connector in, my mobo flexes, and ZAP! my fans start whirring and the LEDs come on. I choke back a sob as I realize that I forgot to actually turn the power switch off (stupid stupid stupid...) then cross my fingers and push the power button, to no avail. Not a fan whirring, and no lights at all. I took everything out of my case and inspected all the parts one by one, but saw no visible damage anywhere.

So, here goes:
1) Is it feasible that my moderate overclocking (166 -> 190 FSB) would ruin a 4-month old hard drive?
2) Is there any (easy) way to be certain my mobo is causing the lack of power issue? I don't want to replace it only to find that I toasted my CPU and my mobo still works. Would there be any outward signs of chip damage?
3) Finally, Newegg has a special on the Asus A7N8X Deluxe ($116). Is this a good replacement if mine is truly dead?