Computer problem; can't find my restore disks?

Yes, you could use the Factory Restore disks of an identical machine. You could try making the disks from your current install. If the process will complete then it should be perfectly fine, depending upon the cause of the whole situation. If it is the result of malware, you would be better off either using the disks from the other machine or using the restore partition on your machine than creating the disks on an infected machine.

Be sure that you back up your data before performing the restore.

Once the restore is complete, install your preferred AV, run Windows Update repeatedly until you get no more updates. Scan your backup with the AV program and then restore the backup data.

The old laptop has to be identical for the recovery disks to work, however use the reocvery method chris has suggested would be better initially. Home made recovery disks have a nasty habit of becoming corrupted with time and stalling the recovery process leaving you up sh**creek

Your best bet would be to try see if the "built in recovery" is working..

You didnt mention what laptop it was and i am going to bed so...

Look up the make and model of the laptop followed by.. Built in recovery guide..

Example using.. Make: ACER.. Model: gyh98.. http://bit.ly/1yuqygu

You could try use those disks.. They may or may not work.

Depends what you mean by "messed up" computer.. If its a Software "mess up"..

Then the.. "mess" would also be backed up onto disks.

Hope it helps :)

The first thing to do would be to look and see if your hard drive has a recovery partition. Most branded computers have one, look at Computer/My Computer. If you find one, restart your PC and watch closely the first screen you see for a message similar to "For Recovery, press F11, or similar. Bear in mind, if you do a system recovery, you will lose all your files and programs you have installed now.