Replacing a hard drive and re-installing Vista

[MARK44004]

I have an ACER 5515 laptop with Vista and i want to replace the hard drive with a bigger one. I was suppose to make a recovery disc when i bought it and I didn't fully. I made some DVD discs but there were so many I had to burn that i thought I was doing something wrong so I stopped and was going to research the situation, but never did. Now I have my programs and pics and documents on the computer.
My question is, can i make recovery discs now with the stuff I already have on it? I know I can can copy all my docs and pics/vids onto a jump-drive, but what about my programs? If I can make recovery discs now, what will be copied?
I know there is a lawsuit against ACER for the recovery disc situation but I don't think it'll be finalized until mid March. And then who knows when ACER will send out my recovery disc. This was an option to accept the lawsuit and it's reward.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.