I have had a hard drive failure on an old (Sony VAIO 2001) Windows XP computer.
I have replaced the C drive with a new drive.

Now I need a bootable XP CD/DVD.

I have three CD's that came with the computer

[*]System Recovery CD (the computer does not boot from this. I have already tried)
[*]Application Recovery CD
[*]Driver Recovery CD


I have searched on the internet for a solution. (see http://www.gelsana.com/xp.htm for a list of my search results)
So far, most of the sites I have found requires me to have an active Windows XP OS already to get files from.
One Microsoft site required me to use a series of floppy discs to use -- I do not have a floppy drive on the computer I am typing from now.

How do I get bootable windows xp cd?

I have been told that I have to buy a new copy but I am not sure if that is true. First of all, does Microsoft even sell Windows XP anymore? Secondly, if the only legal way to get one is to buy one, why does Microsoft offer a free way to get the bootable XP system discs in the form of a series of floppies for free here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994 ?