Technology can be such a pain

A few weeks ago my laptop died. It seems it overheated and the fan may not have engaged. Stinky was using it, and I wasn't home. So, after a day of reformatting with an older XP disk, I found my recovery disks for the laptop. Another day later, it was back up. I lost all the stored info on the hard drive unfortunately. Many of the photos I had stored on it were uploaded in photobucket thankfully. But still, it's all a big inconvenience that I could have bypassed if I had remembered to make copies of my files onto a cd or external hard drive. Lesson learned, I will be backing up all my files as soon as I have figured out how to retrieve them, or rebuild my lists of things. I am using a cooling pad with the laptop now. Every so often the fan comes on, but it is incredibly noisy. I did take a can of air to it, but still, the fan most likely needs to be replaced. I am hesitant to send it out. Granted there are very few files in there, but one does worry about it. I was told of a few places nearby that repair hardware issues. I may have to call around and see if they have the required parts for my laptop before bringing it in. Hell, I may have to move all identifying cookies, files, and such onto a disk and blank out the laptop again before handing it over. Another thing I need for this now obsolete laptop (Amazing how something two years old is considered a relic when it comes to technology) A new power cord. Somehow the wires in the cord are frayed. I find myself propping the cord, or twisting the plug around to secure a good connection. The battery has slowly been loosing it's capacity. Granted it didn't come with an extended battery, so stock laptops being what they are, it's not the best for long term usage away from an actual hardwired power source.