Right chaps I could do with some advice. I'm at the end of my patience with my desktop PC. I have gone down all the usual routes prior to asking this question (removed programs, defragged etc etc) but my PC is running so so slow. It has taken 7 minutes from pressing the on button to being able to open this window to type this message. Loads of crap running in background, HD is going berzerk. Normally I would save pictures and music and business stuff to my ext HD and then do a full system recovery and start again but for some reason, I can't work out why, I have lost my HP recovery partition on my HD

So what options do I have? When I bought the PC it came with Vista home basic installed and the product key on a label on top of the housing. I have no Windows CD. Can I get a copy and re-install Windows and just enter my product key? Or is it not that simple? Anything else I can do? I'm at a loss and the PC is becomming unusable it is so slow!

Cheers in advance.