rotorcraig
I only bought my Dell in January and it came with a reinstallation CD. Perhaps there has been a change of policy recently? If this is the case then in future I will probably (with the help of my son) build my own and have my own copy of the OS. My Dell is working fine but I didn't realise when I bought it that it would come loaded up with dozens of pieces of software I wouldn't have chosen in a million years.
Since I posted above I've heard that any copy of XP would do to reintall the OS as long as you have the identification key for the OS supplied-- it's normally stuck to the case somewhere.