A friend thought she was in her picture folder deleting unwanted digital photos but it turns out she was in root dir of 'C:' and deleted some necessary files and folders needed to boot into Windows.

I have pressed F8 and get prompted to put in restore CD but unfortunately she has misplaced it and can't find it. The laptop has the sticker with Windows XP product key- I would think it was loaded with an OEM version of XP and the product key on the sticker was used. Does anyone know how I can reload Win XP and use the product key on the sticker?

There is nothing else wrong with Laptop I have booted from CD with Linux and tested it all out. I am not sure what she did during delete but she corrupted the formatting of the hard drive but it reformatted OK.

HI,
You should reloading the same version of XP.
Microsoft allows up to 3 activation per product code.
If the machine has never been reloader you should be good to go.

Problem is that most new laptops don't come with Windows XP disks only a restore disk which must have OEM XP files on it. I have my own XP disks but they won't accept the Product Key on the laptop and I want to use the laptop's product key not mine.

You can load XP using the key from your disk and then change it to your laptop key before you activate it. I have done this several times for my customers with no problems.
Windows gives you several days of evaluation time before you must activate it.

Thanks for that raysautomatic. I always thought you had to have an OEM's XP version to do that.