How do I do this?

I need to reformat thehard drive on my kids PC and reload XP back onto it. The problem started out with a missing Start and Tool Bar, and desintergrated into this now.

As with most store bought PCs, I do not have an XP disc to use to reload the OS back onto the PC. I do have the Lic. authorization key codes that came with the new PC.

What do I do from here to get Microsoft to send me a new disc to use?
Is there a link on how to do this?

Thanks

 

What brand of computer? There are usually recovery processes.

MS won't send you a new CD for this.

 

Sony VAIO PCG NV170 LapTop.
The system is pretty bad, it won't even start up to a bootable disk or CD. I do have the recovery disks, and they do not seem to help in starting up either. I can't seem to get into safe mode or anything. The folks at dial-a-tech seem to think my kids picked up some kind of virus downloading games on the net. That's why I want to reformat the whole thing.

 

Have you set the boot order in the bios so that you can boot to the recovery CDs?

 

My screen flashes Sony, and then everything freezes up.
I can't do anything else.

 

If its freezing at the Sony screen, no amount of reinstalling the software is going to help.

 

That's why I'm thinking of reformatting it and starting new.

 

The thing is though, if its freezing at the Sony screen, thats a hardware problem. Reformatting won't help either.

 

I gotcha now. Time to take it into a bench tech. Thanks!