How to reinstall Windows Vista Home Premium on Acer Aspire 5100 laptop

[Acer Aspire]

Hi,
can someone help me with this, please?
I have no installing CDs for the operating system, they never came with the lap top. There is some hidden partition on my hard drive that is supposedly keeping the re-installation files but I am not sure how to find and use them.
I appreciate your help.

 

[buwish]

There is indeed a recovery partition on your laptop. To access it, simply hold down alt+f10 when you turn the computer on. If that doesn't work, shut it down, hold down zero, and power on.

 

[Acer Aspire]

There is indeed a recovery partition on your laptop. To access it, simply hold down alt+f10 when you turn the computer on. If that doesn't work, shut it down, hold down zero, and power on.

Excellent. Thank you buwish. Just to clarify, when you say recovery you are talking about setup to the factory settings, right? My comp is acting weird (deleted my Desktop and My Documents) and I want to delete everything and start from scratch.
Thanks again. 🙂

 

[tmelges]

There is indeed a recovery partition on your laptop. To access it, simply hold down alt+f10 when you turn the computer on. If that doesn't work, shut it down, hold down zero, and power on.

Thanks so much! You saved us buying a new computer!!