Recovery Manager issues/Bootmgr missing

This HP DV5T has been giving me headaches for the month or two. I first noticed the problem when I tried to create a recovery disk for the laptop. I got the error that "This computer does not have a drive capable of creating CDs or DVDs," something I've seen posted on this forum. I didn't attempt to create the disk right when I got the laptop, assuming I could do it down the road (dumb, I know). Then I started to notice that whenever I ran a virus scan or spyware scan (different programs), the entire laptop would freeze right around the end of the scan, at about 99% completed. After watching the scan, I noticed it always froze on a particular file. I can't remember the exact file unfortunately.

I became fed up with this, so today I decided to use the HP Recovery Manager to restore my computer to the factory settings and do things right this time. I run it, the computer restarts, and I confirm that I want to run it. Two checked boxes are present one the Recovery Manager in the "Factory Image Recovery" stage. The first step of "Reformatting the Windows parition of your hard disk drive" seems to be completed alright. Then the "Reinstalling original content" step seems to halt the process. The progress bar never leaves 0%. After a few minutes, I receive "Error 1002." Recovery Manger can't complete what it's trying to do, and sends me back to the HP start up screen that appears when the computer first boots up. Now, I'm getting the BOOTMGR MISSING error. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. This gets me nowhere.

I've been unable to find any solutions. It seems as though a popular solution to similar problems is to get a Recovery Disk from HP, but I'm trying to avoid this hassle is there is a way to fix this on my own. Also, something I've just discovered, is that the Microsoft Product Key on the bottom of my laptop has a letter completely scratched off, so I'm unable to read the entire product key if necessary.

Any solutions or suggestions would be appreciated tremendously. I can provide additional information, but I'm unsure as to what information would be useful in solving the problem. The whole issue has me a bit lost and frustrated. Thanks for listening.