We came home and I turned on the HP to add a user (Kathryn), but got the "blue screen of death". It kept trying to repair whatever was wrong and then rebooting. Again and again and again. So it's finally hooped.
At first I thought I would just install Linux on the laptop and be done with it. I realized, though, that i need a functioning PC to create a Linux USB Boot Disk. So that won't work.
Then I remembered an article I read last fall from Lifehacker; "How To Turn An Old Laptop Into A Chromebook". It took me about an hour of farting around, mostly because I didn't read the instructions all the way through, but it worked marvellously.
At the end of the day, I have converted my old HP 14" Envy Laptop into a very fast Chromebook. I lost all the information on the hard drive (which would have I lost anyway). I gave Kath a copy of the Chromebook environment on a USB stick so she can still run off it if the hard drive fails again.
So I guess I really am "all in" with the "Cloud". I have my phone and my Chromebook. That's it.
I've figured out ways to do most everything with the small computer - torrents, VPNs, ebooks, etc. The stuff I can't replace, I just don't use....
Because it's 2016.