i want to reinstall windows but don't know how to boot from the cd. startup gives me no options to press any key to get into the bios.

to boot from the cd rom drive, you just restart it the hit f12 to go to the boot sequence. if you are going to use the recovery cd you will have to back up all data first before doing the recovery process or you will loose all data on the laptop. the recovery process is the only way to fix issues on the operating system.