OK, here's the deal. The laptop I'm using has a faulty hard drive, and I'm thinking it's a good idea to just stay connected as long as I can, because there's always the chance that the next time I try to boot up, I won't be able to. (This is a friend's machine who doesn't want to buy a new hard drive until she gets back from holiday, so is leaving it all up to me to figure out what to do until she gets back in three weeks.)

So my question is, is it alright to just leave it on? She has a screensaver that automatically goes on after a certain amount of time. Can I just leave it on like this for the entire day (or longer?) What's the longest it should stay on without my damaging the computer?

Sorry if this is the most BASIC kinds of questions, but I'm still learning as I'm going, and these things crop up.

THANK YOU in advance!

..xx..e