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[Lightningfalcon]

For the past month I've been having problems with my laptop (A Dell Inspiron N5010).  As much as I like to complain about how much it sucks, it has served me well for the past four or so years.  The first major problem was when I got a blue screen last month.  I spent a while looking for solutions, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was a driver problem.  Two days ago I finally stopped procrastinating and did a large amount of updating, downloading Windows updates and updating all my major drivers.  I was able to restart without a problem.  However next time I restarted my computer was slow booting up, and when I finally logged on the screen background was completely black, and the only icon on the screen and start menu was for Fallout: NV.  After about three hours, I was able to fix the problem by putting in a new folder somewhere.  Then, yesterday, while downloading Knights of the Old Republic II and Warhammer, my computer would intermittently slow down, and sometimes freeze, requiring a restart.  At first I thought this was a virus, but none of my scans found anything (I still strongly suspect that I have a virus somewhere).  So then I rebooted and did a diagnostic, which revealed that I had a missing hard drive.  After a bit of Google searching, I reset the BIOS settings to default, and ran the diagnostic again.  This time I had the hard drive, but when it was doing some memory test (There were four bars that would rapidly move left and right) I got this error-
2000-0147
Status 79
Along with the stuff about contacting Microsoft.  At the same time, when I restarted to google this, my computer gave me some message about how my hard drive was failing, and that I need to back up and get a new hard drive.  SO my first question is how serious this is, and if there is some way to fix this.

My second question is regarding getting a new computer.  I had already been planning to do this for a month or two, but if I can't resolve this problem cheaply enough then I'm gonig to have to speed this up.  I want to build my own computer, and currently have about $350 saved up.  I don't need to be able to run Crysis 3 or Battlefield 3 at 60fps on maximum settings, but I would like to be able to run games like Fallout and GTA at a decent setting.  Do any of you know any good guides and sites, should I start buying parts now, and about how much will this cost me total? The only guides I can find are for either building a regular computer or something that can run every game known to man at maximum power. 

[jaass]

Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard:  Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 ATX  AM3+ Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory:  Wintec One 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($52.72 @ Amazon)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card:  Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card  ($184.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case:  Cooler Master HAF XB (Black) ATX Desktop Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $629.65

You can probably go down on the HDD plus no cooling. If you want, you can go with this;

Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($118.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard:  ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX  LGA1155 Motherboard  ($54.98 @ Newegg)
Memory:  Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($62.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card:  EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card  ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Case:  Xion XON-560 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:  Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $571.91

Only Duo core though, and no cooling.

Although you can use this(http://pcpartpicker.com/) if you just want to build you own system

edit: run a checksum, it might be some bad sectors. If not it is always good practice to backup your HDD in two different places.

[gimlet]

There's a pretty good chance that it's just the hard drive that needs to be replaced in the laptop - I'd google compatible models and try one, that's gonna be by FAR the cheapest way out of this.   It's pretty likely to be the drive 'cause that's about the only moving part in a PC.  My quick google shows a fair amount of discussion plus even a few youtube videos on how to do it.  To make double sure, you could take the drive out of the laptop and attach it to another PC to run diagnostics on it.  Or at least make a diagnostic USB stick, boot that, and run tests off that - like Ultimate Boot CD which comes with a fair number of manufacturer's hard drive tests.  I'd run memory and cpu diagnostics too just to be sure, it'd be nice to know everything else is working before sinking cash into a laptop drive.

For building a computer, check if you have a Microcenter in your city or near enough to drive to - you can probably save about $50 on a CPU+motherboard by going in there, unless you find an amazing sale online.

[Shakerag]

If you're replacing the hard drive, Dell is good for having very detailed manuals on how to fix anything in their laptops.  Assuming you're comfortable doing that.

I've practically entirely disassembled and reassembled my significant other's laptop at least three times using the Dell manuals.  (Those fans in the back are a cast iron bitch to replace in an Inspiron 8100)

[Bouchart]

Does anyone have any experience as to how long a hard drive is expected to last?  The computer I use I've had for over a decade.

No major problems so far, but I have important things backed up just in case.

[jaass]

^ Depends really, it can fail right now or it can last for another 5 years. The best thing you can do is backup everything.