Try just replacing your hard drive.

If it's a bigger problem than that (which I kinda doubt) - At keast you'll have a plan B. A new, good hard drive (dirt cheap) to swap into the cheap laptop you're probably going to buy. Method only works if you buy a laptop with a worse hard drive than the one you bought. And if it winds up your only problem was a hard drive - you'll only be out $40 and you won't have to buy a new laptop.