Well here we are several months later.
SWMBO eventually decided that the HDD was indeed fritzed. A replacement HDD was bought over the internet and installed. By this time SWMBO had decided that she was going to go down the Ubuntu route and not bother with Win 7.
However, after struggling along for a while and hijacking my laptop whenever my back was turned, it has been decided that Win 7 should make a comeback.
My question is what is the easiest way to do this? Her Acer has no DVD drive so USB is the only method of loading. As I understand it we can load Win via a USB stick using an ISO file? If this is correct where can we download an ISO file other than from the Microsoft site which requires that you buy it from them? We have a product key, on a sticker on the bottom of her laptop, so we should be able to activate the software when it's downloaded and installed I believe.
Any help, in the form of a dummies guide preferably, will be appreciated.
Windows 7 Home premium 32 bit is what we're after.