Need a copy of Vista

[gregebowman]

My harddrive crashed on me, so I've been without an operating computer for a couple of months. I have to go to the public library to post this. Anyway, I had a guy look at my laptop, and he said that hte registry on my harddrive is corrupt, and is no good. I have an external harddrive I was going to use to store my MP3's on, but he said I can use this for my laptop to work. However, I don't have a copy of Vista that was originally installed on my laptop when I bought it. There were no disks for it that I can recall. Stores don't carry it anymore because of Windows 7, and I can't afford to pay the $300 I've seen it at. So does anyone know where I can get a copy of Vista on the cheap? I'd appreciate it.