hrklug :
hang-the-9 :
Why not replace your hard drive instead of buying a whole new laptop? $80 for a drive, $400+ for a laptop.
never have replaced a hard drive, son is in college (he could do this, I'm 67 and know a lot but not that) in another state and i need it do within a week
Even hiring someone to re-install Windows on a new drive will be much cheaper. Up to you though if you want to not deal with it. You also did not list your current laptop specs or even why you think the hard drive is bad, did you test the drive?
Where are you planning on buying it from? Size? Do you need larger text or anything special like that? If you are looking for something for movies, are you talking about form a DVD/Bluray disk? Streaming from Netflix, from your own files (say MP4 video or something)?