You want a big laptop screen, but also want the laptop to be as light as a feather. How does a laptop manufacturer accomplish this goal?

They make the lid of the laptop razor thin to minimize weight. Unfortunately, this means that a small flex of the lid can crack the laptop screen. The laptop screen itself is approximately $150. Labor could easily add another $100. Laptops are not designed to be taken apart easily, so it is very likely a screen replacement will damage the fragile plastic snaps that hold the lid and screen together. Your laptop will never be the same cosmetically and you are also dangerously close to the cost of a new laptop.

How do you prevent a cracked screen?

• Re-evaluatate your need for a large screen laptop. Perhaps a 15.4" screen will do.
• Use a laptop case. Never jam a laptop into a book bag where the laptop is sandwiched between text books.
• Buy an Apple MacBook Pro. These laptops have aluminum cases and the lid will not flex. However prepare for sticker shock; you should expect to pay around $1200 and up for a usable MacBook Pro.

Eventually, your hard drive will fail. Hard drives are expected to last between 3 to 5 years before they eventually fail.

How do you know when your time is up with a hard drive?

• Your computer starts to slow down. (but a slow computer can be caused by other things besides a failing hard drive.)
• Run the Disk Utility in the Utilities Folder. Select Repair Permission (controls access to programs) first, then verify Hard Drive, last. Both these scans can take some time to complete and will make using your Apple laptop difficult, if not  impossible during these scans. If you have Permissions that cannot be repaired, please refer to this Apple article to determine if this is something to worry about:  

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US 

• To repair errors found while verifying your hard drive, you must boot your laptop using the installation DVD that came with your laptop and run the Disk Utility from the DVD.
• If you find that your permissions cannot be repaired (outside the errors that are OK to have as reported by the Apple article) or your hard drive cannot be repaired with the Disk Utility, it is time to start backing up your data. It is only a matter of time before your laptop will stop booting because the hard drive has failed.