Some computer vendors add the Recovery Disc software to your hard drive, and it appears as an option on the boot menu when you restart your machine. But what if your machine won't boot from the hard drive at all?
Then you need a removable, bootable Recovery Disc. If you did not receive one with your computer, you could contact the manufacturer of your system and buy a Recovery Disc. Yes, you should have received one with your new computer. But some vendors do sell them separately.
Getting one from the vendor is the easy but expensive method. But there is a way to create a recovery disk for free, if you have a computer that is able to burn a CD. (Sorry I didn't mean for that to rhyme...)
Microsoft has made available Recovery Disc image files for Vista and Windows 7, which are hosted online by NeoSmart Technologies. It boggles my mind that Microsoft doesn't host these files on their own server; instead leaving you to wonder if Neosmart is a trustworthy source for creating a CD that will be used to boot your computer.
But never mind that. You will find many Web pages offering "Vista recovery disk downloads" that actually link to the NeoSmart page above. Don't waste any time looking for something different, better or easier. Neosmart is apparently the one and only trusted place to get your recovery disk images.
Your goal is to download the recovery disk image file in ISO format, and burn it to a CD. Yes, if your hard drive is not working then you will have to download and burn the image file using another computer.
Note that the recovery disk cannot be used to (re)install Windows. It's just a stripped down bootable Windows interface that can be used for recovery tasks such as Startup Repair, System Restore, System Image Recovery and a command prompt for the brave of heart.
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