My laptop just died...

So my laptop hard drive gave up the ghost on Saturday. Managed to rebuild, but lost a good chunk of data. Not a happy camper.

I've had the laptop for almost 3 years. I've clocked a lot of travel with it. It's been to New Orleans, clear across Canada numerous times, been thrown into soft sided bags to get dragged around, and it just made the trip to India with me. It's exterior has seen better days. It's processor was never great to begin with (it was designed for low power consumption, not high performance). It's built in pointing device (the little eraserhead stick thing) died about a year or so ago. I've often said that the laptop owes me nothing. I've got my money's worth out of it.

Having said that... What the damn thing owes me is the courtesy of not dying suddenly. With the house purchase on the horizon (just 8 days away), I don't have the money to buy a new laptop right now. I probably won't have it until the summer. If anyone knows who the patron saint of laptops is, please let me know. I'd really like to pray for his/her intervention.

dilip