Hi Paul, it sounds to me that 'System Recovery' will set the pc back to the factory settings. In other words all your data will be scrubbed from the machine and vista set back to the day you bought it...Like a 're-install' of the os...
So you'll need to save as much data as you can to CD/DVD (unless you have an external HDD) before you hit the 'system recovery' button but at least you'll be getting a nice clean system to re-install your saved data onto.
It may be worth waiting until you get the disks proper but as long as you go carefully you should be ok.

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