Critical Errors

A day late, but here we are at last.  I'm afraid the IT problems are getting worse, with my laptop now reporting a 'critical hard drive error' and telling me in doom laden terms that a fatal crash is imminent.  Apparently I have to back up my data and consult my vendor as to whether the hard drive should be replaced or repaired.  Which rather contradicts other parts of the warning systems, which tell me there is nothing that can be done to repair this particular problem - all I can do is back up and await the inevitable.  Not that I necessarily believe any of it - after wasting my Friday evening trying to address tis problem, it seems that the 'critical error' in question might not be that critical and that the hard drive could continue to function (albeit with lots of annoying warnings) for some time yet.  So, my 'solution' for now is to carry on using this laptop until it drops, but at the same time saving everything new to external flash drives, (where I already have all my existing files backed up), and putting it into 'hibernate' mode rather than shutting it down altogether to reduce the stresses on the hard drive caused by repeated booting of the operating system.  I've also ensured that my back-up laptop - my old IBM Thinkpad with a reconditioned hard drive running Linux - is fully functional and updated.  It could be forced to step in at any moment!

In the longer term, I'm left contemplating having to buy a new laptop for the second time in three and a half years.  Not a very appealing prospect.  To e honest, I never bloody know what to buy.  This accursed Packard Bell was only bought because my first, second and third choices of laptop in my price range were out of stock everywhere I tried and I desperately needed a working computer, (I didn't have a back up laptop then, in fact it was my current back up, then my only working laptop which had died).  On paper it seemed OK, but I've never particularly liked it, in the way that I liked the old IBM - it just doesn't feel solid enough.  I think I made the mistake of buying a mid-range, mid-priced laptop which was neither one thing nor another.  I should either have just gone for a cheap, general purpose, machine, which wouldn't have bothered me if it had died after a couple of years, or spent the money on a high spec machine which would do everything and anything, (and whose full capabilities I'd probably never use).   I'm inclined to go the cheap route this time, like I say, I won't feel so bad about a budget laptop dying on me.  The trouble is, trying to discern the merits of various makes and models online id made next to impossible by the idiots who insist on giving bad reviews because of problems they had with the vendor or operating system rather than the laptop itself.  Either that, or they assume that their individual poor experience can be applied universally to a particular type of machine.  Sometimes they just don't like the brand because of a previous, entirely irrelevant, bad experience.   I guess it's just the idiocy of the crowd at work...