So I told my sister that I'd fix her laptop for her before she moves to take up
a new job.  It's a fairly simple problem: Her hard drive is corrupted and
Windows hasn't been able to finish an update for about a year, maybe a bit more.

That doesn't stop it from trying every time you turn the machine on.  And then
it needs to revert the changes on the next startup, because it can't finish the
update...

Well, obviously, the solution is to replace the hard drive, but then the laptop
is a brick until I install an OS.  She's not savvy enough to use linux, more's
the pity, and a new copy of windows costs an arm and a leg.  But hey, I should
be able to call Fujitsu and have them send me a recovery disk (Why this isn't
included with the laptop in the first place is absolutely incomprehensible).

Fujitsu wants $15 per disk (there are two, apparently) and $13 S&H which brings
the total to $44 for two recovery disks...

Naturally, I can only order them over the phone, which means divulging credit
card numbers over the phone.  Not a good idea.  Never has been.  Never will be.

So I figure I'll do the Smart Thing, and I get a burn card (pre-paid VISA gift
card).  I use these all the time for shopping online, they work everywhere.  Or
so I thought.  Fujitsu won't take my perfectly valid VISA gift card because it
doesn't have a name on it.  They think that makes it "not a valid credit
card"...?

TL/DR

Unless I can find a way to get Fujitsu to send me a system restore disk, I'm up
Sh(# Creek without a paddle.  I suppose I could try making the laptop a
Hackintosh, but my last attempt at that was stellarly unsuccessful.

Regards,
A.D.B.

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