Laptop Harddrive/Window help

[hatebringer]

Okay guys, so it all starts out about 8 months ago. I was coming home from school and I had my laptop in my bag like i usually do. When I got home i grab my bag and get out of the car and somehow I had not grabbed my bag correctly or something but I end up dropping it right on the pavement. :( It was a pretty violent thud, but the laptop worked okay after. Here is where my first problem came up

 

- Bottom left corner of screen (not actual window screen) is cracked and plastic piece fell off so I can see the rotating mechanic for opening and closing the laptop.

 

Now this wouldn't be bad but it also had the effect of making my backlight on my screen very dull sometimes but has now gone from that to flickering and eventually making a buzzing noise almost like its grounding out somehow. I opened up the screen but did not see any frayed wires, but I am not a laptop pro, desktops are my thing so im not sure :/

I've been living with this issue for awhile now, and i can usually make it stop for a little while by tapping the screen or closing the top and tapping the top of it. works about 60% of the time so wondering if you guys know how I could fix, or look into fixing it.

 

NOTE: It is a Dell Inspirion

 

Now a more pressing matter that has been plaguing my laptop since the fall.

 

About 3 months after the drop, I updated my laptop windows was complaining blah blah update etc. so I updated and reset. Upon restart I logged in and then within 3 minutes of logging in, my computer froze. I didn't think much of it until I restarted and again it did the same thing. I thought, okay maybe the update was bad or something So i went and set it back before the update, but again it did it. So I went into safe mode and it was okay. To make a long story short, I backed up all my data and wiped the system. I then tried starting it up and it works fine from factory settings. So I begin to use it again etc. ect. and as soon as it updates It starts freezing up.

 

So I reset again disable updates and use it normally but now for about the last month It has been freezing very steadily after either ~10 mins of idle or around 2-3 hours of moderate use with an occasional freeze every once and again between those times.

 

3 Days ago i start getting the "Hard disk is failing" popup on startup And i kinda knew it was the Harddrive but now I bought a new laptop HDD and I want to know exactly how I would go aroudn to setting it up and all that. I can take the old one out and put in the new one but I want to know how I would be able to Install an OS on the new Harddrive and any othe rpointers you guys may have.

 

- How to make a bootable CD for an OS I have a windows 7 .iso (Not pirated I get it free from college)

- What else Will I need to do when I put the Harrdrive into the laptop (first steps etc.)

 

 

I hope you guys can help because I have never done anything this big on my own stuff and I don't want to make any mistakes. (im CS major so you don't have to talk to me as if Im simple-minded lol and No "take it to best buy" stuff either :P)

 

Thanks :)

[Corvus]

may as well explain this in parts:

 

To make a bootable disc you just need a working computer with a DVD burner, a blank DVD (blank, not an empty data DVD), and software that can burn .iso files. Looking around on google, here is a good guide from the Ubuntu help documentation including pretty much any operating system you are likely to be using: Burning ISO How To

 

After getting the disc you will want to make sure the new drive is properly installed in the laptop, and since you will be using the regular install disc put it in and start the computer up to begin the installation process. If it wont start the install process you need to go into the BIOS and bump the up the priority of the DVD drive for booting before trying again, and then the installer should walk you through the rest of the process. (Generally the only type of installation that requires additional steps is the first time install of an OEM copy which requires using the OPK software to do it properly)