I have old Vista discs you can have.
Linux is free.
Linux is free and should run just fine on your old hardware.
Is there a license sticker on the laptop with the registration code? If so, you can do a google search and download a legit image of the appropriate version of windows. I believe digital river might be the host.
darn, I also lost Microsoft Office 2007 and a video editing program. That hurts.
Regardless of the OS you choose, I'd try putting the damaged drive into a cheap USB drive enclosure and then attempt to access it and retrieve some files. Hiren's Boot Disk version 10.6 on CD should have the disk and file recovery tools you need.
No backups, eh?
I always use separate partitions for OS and data. You can just back up the data partition. You can even reinstall the OS without touching the data, if the disk is physically good.
BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP.
External hard drives are cheap as dirt now.
Look for an Inspiron 9400. It's their 17" multi-media package and usually sells for $200 or less. I've bought about 5 or 6 of them for friends. I always manage to find the 1920x1200 ones, but even the lower res 1440x900 ones are great.
The older Inspiron 9300 is a nice 17"er too, but it has an IDE HD instead of the newer SATA.
BTW - I guess you are too young to remember when Toshiba screwed us, broke the law, and sold our silent submarine propulsion technology to the commies. F*ck Toshiba! Never buy their products!
A lot of the time when a disk fails you can attach as a 2Nd drive a recover the data. All you need is something like this.
http://www.frys.com/product/5466019?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
KINGWIN USB2.0 TO SERIAL ATA & PARALLEL ATA ADAPTER CABLE KIT - USI-2535
Mfr: Kingwin Model: USI-2535
FRYS.com #5466019 UPC: 859813001441
USB 2.0 to SATA & IDE adapter w/ back up button.
Connect to three different sizes of drive mechanism to USB. (2.5”, 3.5”, and 5.25”).
Support both SATA & IDE types of drives.
Dual output power supply with power on/off button, standard 4 pin power output and new SATA power output.
AC power cable.
SATA II & USB 2.0 compatible.
$14.99
I use Win2k, fully patched with the official updates as well as the unofficial ones on MSFN’s 2k forum. Those give me some XP app compatibility.
Also - you don’t want vista on that turd. Find XP if you can, but then you’ll have lots of fun trying to find drivers - not an easy thing to do with Toshiba.
Try the free beta release of Windows 8...seriously! http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download. I did this with a pretty old PC that had been running XP. Once you get the hang of the new interface it is very fast and dependable. Everything worked great for me. Call MS support and tell them about your office 2007 situation. They should be able to help you download the program and get you your product key based on your registration info.
This might be a good opportunity to give ReactOS a try...
The cheapest thing I’ve always found was an OEM copy of the OS from NEWEGG. Still find XP sufficient.
Personally I’d just hold out for a new laptop rather than install Vista. I have an issue with mine where my CPU is one of 0.001% of all they ever made that does not play nice with Vista SP 1. And because of that my tech guy is iffy as to whether Windows 7 can even be installed. My daughter just bought a screaming fast Windows 7 laptop with 6 gig drive for just over three hundred bucks.
Go to the bookstore, spend 18 bucks on a magazine with the word “UBUNTU” on it. It has a disk inside that holds the Linux based OS. I recommend it highly.