Which one, Where and How to...

Yes, this time is my son's computer... Something whent wrong with the HD and, in advance, getting the info to fix this once and for all??? He got (I think a 40 Gigs) HD for all his programs and another (40 Gigs???) for his files and everything else. I still have to check the PS, because looks like the HD it is not spinning... My question: which program need to use for make the little partition with everything in there to fix troubles and get the machine in factory condition (in the future) in the way IBM-Lenovo and HP does in the new systems (and without recovery disks), once decided which one, where can I get it and finally (I think any program would be with a read or how to file) how to do it. any help and recomendation would be welcomed; aha, and last, but not necesarily, free or at least not really expensive. Thanks in advance!!!