emergency power only

So my laptop died Saturday afternoon. Serious big-time directory issues, to the point that I suspected hardware failure (attempts this morning suggest that is likely). I have a replacement drive but it is not a known good drive (in fact it dates to last August and I don’t know how long it was used before then). It had all better be down to the hard drive, though, because I’m in no shape to splash out on buying a new computer – in fact, if the laptop goes, I will resort to the iMac indefinitely (although restoring all that music will be a right royal PITA) and use the iPhone for all portable computing. Which will at least keep me from parking my ass on the couch and thumping away at the MacBook all evening every evening.
Oh yeah – saw Iron Man last night. It is as advertised. I believe it does for the entire superhero genre what Daniel Craig and Casino Royale did for Bond. I would gladly have turned around and walked right back into the theater for a second viewing.
Anyone have an Asus EEE? Running Linux? What do you think of it?