My sister has a HP laptop since 2009 and it's still working. It's really slow though. What's your laptop brand?
HP. My hard disk died. 7.1 million bad sectors and weird clicking noises. I should be able to replace it, but it's dead until I buy a new hard drive.
I have a 2TB external, I really don't need more. I used to have a 320GB and that was usually sufficient, but I may upgrade it to 500 if I have to buy a new disk anyway.