Why does dell NOT include windows installation disc

Microsoft has not allowed OEMs (Dell, Lenovo, etc.) to ship discs for quite some years now - you were supposed to prepare a boot/rescue set when you received the system.  If you did not, see the link below.

Since there's a good chance the problem is due to a faulty hard drive, you should run an extended hard drive diagnostic (F12 at powerup) before proceeding - if you see a failure message, replace the drive before you reload the OS.

To order the recovery discs, see

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/476.2-0-requesting-a-microsoft-windows-reinstallation-cddvd-from-dell.aspx

If you made the USB recovery drive with Dell Backup and Recovery, it does indeed.  No, you cannot do a clean install - you can only do a factory recovery, but even with a blank hard drive, you CAN use the flash drive.  Start the system from the flash drive (will require booting with secure boot OFF and in legacy mode on newer UEFI systems) and follow the prompts.

Forgive my bluntness, but that is a stupid answer. I created a rescue USB thumb drive, but the problem with my hard drive will require me to format it and possibly replace it. The USB rescue disk does not give me those features.

The Dell diagnostics - run in extended mode -- will test for bad blocks on the drive. F12 at powerup.

As for fdisk and format - those went out as separate entities some time ago.  The partition and format are done as part of the recovery utility.

It IS true that clean installs are getting harder to do - but that's Microsoft's doing, not Dell - or Lenovo, Toshiba, etc.  MS sets the terms under which OEMs can release Windows discs, and the OEMs have to comply with the terms of Microsoft's licensing.

But the recovery disc doesn't have fdisk or format, so I would need to find something else to boot from and prepare the disk. That was one of the major things we used to do with the Windows Install CD/DVD. That and the clean install combined are sometimes the only way to recover a system, or to determine if the hard drive is failing, since SATA drives hide the bad spot information from the OS. The recovery disk is still far from a complete solution, and I'm stuck with a laptop which only half works until I can get viable media from which I can perform all the steps required to actually wipe and restore my system. My system is exhibiting symptoms like application boxes on the tiles interface with no text, and when you click them nothing starts. And even the File Explorer, when one is running and I right-click and try to start another, tells me it is a dead link. There are many similar problems, Startup items which fail because the application/program installation is broken at various and multiple levels (file system and registry locations). Running the Recovery from the USB restore drive I created does not fix it, even though the system was operational when I created it. I see many complaints about the difficulty of getting an actual Windows Install CD/DVD and don't understand why Dell is so stuborn about listening to all their customers complaints on the issue. I found a link online which was supposed to allow me to order media from Dell, but it doesn't work, regardless of which browser I use. Dell has already replaced the motherboard and network card on this four month old laptop. I was pleased with that part of the service and the fact that the technician who came out to my house to repair the computer left me a Drivers disc. But since I am capable of wiping and reinstalling the operating system, I see no reason they should make it so tedious to get the tools to do so. What I'm hearing is a distinct Bah Humbug.

I did the F12 (I now remember doing this before Christmas when this piece of trash failed).  Fan failed and:

Error Code:  2000-0142

Validation:  26360

I would assume this piece of trash's hard drive is no good SO INTO THE TRASH CAN THIS PIECE OF TRASH WILL GO!!!!!

THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD SPEND $1 ON THIS PIECE OF TRASH!!!!!

unless you say that getting the disc would help????

You need a new hard drive;  I would suggest you find a place to donate the system rather than discarding it for the sake of replacing a $50-75 part.