power loss during first boot, now vista won't load

Hi guys. I'm setting up a new vista machine for a friend and have run into an odd problem. While vista was loading for the first time the power cord slipped out of the socket and the computer lost power. I hadn't yet entered my user name or set the time or anything like that. Now when I boot the computer it no longer says "loading vista for the first time," and eventually an error box will pop up saying that there was an error with the installation of windows and the computer must be restarted. Booting into safe mode or the last known good configuration doesn't help. The system doesn't seem to have a recovery partition and of course didn't come with a vista disc. Does anyone have any ideas? I was thinking maybe I could "acquire" a copy of vista and use that to reinstall since I have a valid license. Thanks for your help.

EDIT-a couple hours later the disc was found, go figure. All is well, sorry for wasting time.

Edited July 24, 200719 yr by bahaha