Quote - Oo-kay.
THat "POP" probably wasn't the drives. Far more likely it was the southbridge on your mainboard, the chip that controls the drives, tne PCI bus and the network. A blown southbridge may seem to work, but it would account for the troubles you're having.
Expect just about every program to behave wonky.

YOu'll probably have to replace the mainboard of the computer. Depending on the age of your machine, it might mean replacing the entire machine.

I wonder, what do the screams of dying Southbridges sound like?  Pop? :)