Dad's computer, desperately want to save :(

Dom, if you buy the used laptop for 40 bucks with the bad hard drive, you just install your hard drive in it and you are done!

I would buy the second laptop, that way you have two lappys to cobble together into a working device. The military sells used HMMVW's in pairs at auction for that very purpose.

Well, my dad has just ordered that Startech drive enclosure, so when he has his business computer he can view his files :) And since its coming up to Christmas, he'll want a new computer anyway, so no point buying an old laptop all over again. I might as well buy parts off Ebay and build him a new computer (I've always wanted to build computers).

Funnily enough, that dead laptop cost him £1200 when he bought it... amazing how prices change over the years.