Well, the "getting stuff off a failed Hard Drive" can be time consuming. Not knowing the extent of his work, there is no way to comment on that. Depending on what the old computer is (desktop, notebook, etc) it might be a decent deal and just buy new setup. I ordered my daughter a new box (just computer in case) for $350 or so and it's working pretty good. She did Win7 installation herself with phone guidance from me as it came with no OS installed.
Installing a new HD in a typical computer case normally takes 10 minutes or so.
I'm assuming you're installing a new Windoz OS (not one of the many flavors of Linux)? Win7? If so, providing you have the installation disk it is easy. Just put disk in CD rom drive allow computer to boot from CD, run install and it's done..... It can take an hour, depending on type of system, etc.
If computer doesn't boot from CD directly, you will need to enter bios and change the boot sequence to CD drive. The biggest time consuming part is getting all the programs re-installed and setup the way you want. I've got a 500gig SSD sitting here waiting to be installed, but just have not done it yet because I dread going thru all the program installation. Not the Win7 OS installation, but all the other programs and stuff.
Good luck - if I can help any, just holler.
Ken H>
