Restore to Factory settings for A-210 with obstacles

Hello,
I have read a number of posts on this question, but the solutions there don't seem to work.
1. I didn't get restore cd's at purchase
2. I might have made restore cd's but I don't know where they could be ...
3. the optical drive is broke
4. At first I Power button +0 got me into a selection, but I had to press F8 for advanced options in order to get to the a menue that offered any recovery options. (There were 4 or 5, two looked promising: Complete Restore [but it looked for a back-up that's not there], and  Recovery Wizzard [but that opens the optical drive and asks for cds - drive broken].
5. Now Power +0 doesn't work anymore, I end up in regular windows no matter what.
7. I go to the website enter my serial number and it is not recognized (maybe because I'm in Canada????) - not sure that I want to invest the 'stiff' shipping and handling cost for this machine .....
Any creative suggestions? What happens if I format c:? Would I be able  to install another OS?
if I found backup or restore cd's, could I somehow create a boot USB?
Why can't one not just download a bootable operating system - the activiation number should be unique, no? I bought it with the laptop, didn't I?
sigh ...
Thank you.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I found a workaround:
I had a Windows 7 upgrade disc kicking around
Created bootable USB with Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool (easy enough)
Booted from USB and
Installed Windows 7 Custom (deleting the previous Vista installation).
clean machine ....

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