Macbook Pro Hard Drive Failure, what to do?

Hi, i've had a serious issue with my Mac, however the problem is it's a recurring issue (old Macbook Pro 2010 model) - I know the direct answer i'm probably going to get is "get it repaired or replaced" but that is incredibly expensive....hear me out i'd like to ask 'why does this keep happening?'

Here's the thing, i've had it for 7 years, I know its an old machine and I may get a new one anyway.

When I start my macbook pro up after login suddenly nothing would work. Nothing will show up on desktop. I can't use the keyboards, can move the mouse but the dock doesn't show up or load. Restarting only gives me 'your computer shut down because of a problem' but it does the same thing again/ We've had it repaired at least 3 times now with the same thing keeps on happening. The last time we got it repaired (it was a very expensive process) they told us it was a hard drive malfunction, they replaced it with a 1TB Hard dive and everything seemed all good. Just last week I had turned it back on and was upset to see the same problem coming back again. I tried a hard reset, smc reset, pram reset - everything- and now the mac starts up with some kind of 'clicking' noise you hear 20 times (yes I counted it), like its coming from the disc drive but there's no disc in it.

Instead of the Apple start up logo I have a flashing Folder window with a "?" in the middle. I tried to put it into recovery mode, and when I went to re-install OS the 1TB hard drive could not be located !
I had about 500 GB left of space so that shouldn't be an issue.

But the fact that this has happened to me multiple times, is it just time for me to get a new machine?
I lost everything. But thankfully since I knew this problem would happen again I had backed up a lot of my important stuff.

But my question is, why does this keep happening?