Mac won't boot, install disks lost!

Hi,

My Macbook won't boot up. I've been to the Mac Genius bar and they say I should back up my files and reinstall the system software. Here are my problems.

1. I've lost the disks in a move and Apple says they no longer have disks for my computer. Borrowed disks don't work :-D

2. I have loads of files I can't get to on my computer because it won't fully restart. When I restart the computer I get to the desktop, can see the dock when I mouse over it and have the apple menu in the top left corner but no menu items in the top right corner.

I need to figure out how I can get my files off the computer and then figure out how to reinstall the OS. Any ideas?

This is a Macbook bought in Aug 2006 running version 10.4.11
1.8GHz Intel Core Duo
512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Purchase Leopard full install DVD and see if you can Archive and Install after trying Repair Disk. Make sure you are mains powered and sadly it is possible your hdd has expired.

do what harry says or simply just upgarde to 10.5