laptop on vista home premium won't boot.

I have an acer aspire 5720G using windows Vista Home Premium OEM./ It has failed to boot. I tried to restore ; tried to repair but to no effect. I borrowed a friends disk but could not get any satisfaction. I have my activation ID but no recovery disc. I have tried a variety of boot up discs from online sources again to no effect. I have now installed UBUNTU to access vital files on the hard drive which I have rescued. I would now like to reinstall cleanly my windows vista...how can i do this most efficiently.
Can anybody please guide me?

By reading other threads I feel I am learning lots but am now at a point of great frustration.

With an OEM, DVD, this would be the best method to reinsatall
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

I dont have an original copy of vista home premium that was originally installed. I have a friends licensed copy of vista ultimate, should this be ok? I have tried but to no positive result. Maybe I am doing something wrong? Or could there be some other reason?

Hello

I am not sure what you are trying to do but if it is a copy from your friend I don't think it will work it has to be the original, and most full versions for home use is licensed for 3 computers but you need the original, if your friend has lent this to 3 people then it won't work on yours, this is the way Microsoft set it up to where 30 or 40 people can't use there software unless they purchase it.

But if you are one of the three then ask him please to lend you the original version so you can install it and then activate it through the web. LOL