Windows 7: Need bootable disk to start.

My neighbour turned on his laptop computer this morning and is getting a message "need bootable disk to start". Of course he did not make a set of recovery DVD's.
My question is - how do I get into system repair without a boot disk and then run it 3 time as recommended.
Haven't seen the unit yet, don't even know the brand, just trying to get prepared. Many thanks
Cheers
JohnnyA

I do believe you can create a system repair disk on one Windows 7 PC and use it on another. You just can't use a 32 bit disk on a 64 bit system and vise versa.

System Repair Disc - Create

EDIT: I'd check the BIOS and make sure the boot order isn't messed up and its just trying to boot from the wrong device.

Great advice Alpha. I'l give it a try when I get my hands on the machine.
Cheers
JohnnyA

I have seen this before and it turned out that the user left a CD in the CD-rom and the thing was set to boot from CD as first boot device. But then it could be a bad HD as well or corrupted data on the HD.

Yeah... it wouldn't surprise me there's a disk in the drive. This used to happen all the time back in the floppy disk days (leaving a non-boot floppy in Drive A: )

Alas it turns out the hard drive is shot. Both Seagate Disk Wizard & Hard drive Diagnostics bootable disks could not find a hard drive. Luckely it's still under warranty and no super important personal data to worry about. Thanks for the help all.
Cheers
JohnnyA