If i replace my hard drive, how do i reinstall windows?

Hey guys i'm upgrading my hard drive from a 40 gig to a 120 gig, and i'm just wonderig how would i reinstall the OS. I don't have any driver cd's and i lost the recovery cd. Would i be able to borrow a friends Windows XP Pro install cd, and use that. BTW this is what orginally came installed on my laptop when i bought it. Thanks

If i replace my hard drive, how do i reinstall windows?ie 6

Your new drive may have come with software that can clone the contents of your old drive to the new one. Acronis True Image also works well and the trial version is fully functional.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pro...

If i replace my hard drive, how do i reinstall windows?windows vista internet explorer

Install your hard drive first, and then put the windows cd in your drive. When you power up your computer, press the appropriate F key to change the boot order and select optical drive or cd drive, so the computer tries to read from the optical drive.

From there, you will see the Windows setup screens, and just follow the instructions as they come along. What you WILL need though, is a valid Windows Home or Pro key, as part of the installation will ask you for this and without a valid one, it will not proceed.

You should find this key somewhere in your PC.

Good luck.