Dead MBP - Need Advice on my Options

Hey everyone:

I have a dead MBP, late 2011, won't boot. This thread has more info about my backup strategy and setup, etc.

The bottom line facts are these:

1. I have a theoretically good bootable clone on an extneral drive, but I can't boot to it. Apple tells me that this may be because the file format is "Extended OS, Case Sensitve, Journaled, Encrypted". I did this years ago because I keep one of these drives offsite.

2. I have a new 750GB internal drive installed, but an internet recovery fails every time. After 10 hours, I have a gray screen with a circle with a line through it in the center. There's a spinning wheel at the bottom, but no progress bar.

3. I also tried to restore from time machine to the new drive, and that wouldn't boot either.

4. I've tried four different sticks of RAM with no success.

5. I can't image directly from the clone to the new drive, because somehow the clone got sized to 775GB and my new drive is 750GB. Even though the clone has 160GB of free space, the partition size difference kills the process.

6. I'm 150 miles from the nearest Apple store.

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So right now, I'm $100 in for the new hard drive, which may or may not be the problem. Apple referred me to a local authorized service center, but they have a $90 diagnostic fee to look at it.

So I see my options as these.... Please advise with your thoughts or if I'm missing any options. I could:

A. Drive 150 miles each way to the Apple store with my hardware and see what happens. Maybe get told I have a dead main board and the thing is scrap.

B. Use the local service center, pay the $90 and then maybe have to buy parts through them at a big markup or get told I have a dead main board and the thing is scrap.

C. Go buy a 1TB internal drive to try to image from the clone directly to the new drive. But since the internet recovery won't work, I have reservations about the chances for success with this option.

What do you think? Thanks for your time!