Repair or replace my laptop

[Guest stopme]

The hard drive on my laptop died the other day. I cried. Literally. So many of my pictures of my kids...gone. Darn thing was only two years old. I have two other much older computers that have held up fine.

 

Anyhow, I need to decide whether to replace just the hard drive or the whole laptop. If I replace just the hard drive, I need to buy a new operating system and Microsoft Office. Any ideas on how much I should expect to pay for a new hard drive? How big should I get? I surf the internet alot and store pictures and documents, so I'm not thinking I need a huge one (no gaming). And any ideas on where I can get a great deal on the software?

 

Once I add all that up it'll be easy to figure out whether to just try to get a new one or not.

 

I just saw the thread on the Dell Outlet. Is it safe to get a refurbished computer or should I look for new?

 

Thanks!!!

[bigshopper]

Dell Re-furbs come with a warranty, not as good as a new one, but a decent warranty. I had a similar situation about a year ago and replaced the laptop rather than getting a harddrive and then having to get an operating system.

 

By the way, there are services who retrieve data from crashed drives. It is expensive, but if you have pictures which are only there and no where else you might consider it.

[TamiL]

Why would you need to buy the OS and Office again?

[Guest stopme]

I think I'm going to repair. I have a "Restore" DVD from my laptop that will restore the OS, thankfully. (By the way, I realized my laptop is only 13 months old--can't believe the HD crashed.) I will need Office put on again, but it'll be less expensive than replacing it especially since I already spent $140 on the diagnostics.

 

I saw some of those services to retrieve data and it can run $900-$3500! It turns out I didn't lose as many pix as I thought since I had some of them on my old laptop. That's a relief. And a lesson learned.