Vista Reformat & Reinstall with Anytime Upgrade disc?

[Krista]

Hi all,

After having Vista Home Basic on my laptop (Compaq Presario C500) for 2 years or so now its performance is suffering. Especially now that it's bogged down with spyware I can't seem to clean up, I think I'm ready to reformat and reinstall. I have a couple questions. First, The only Vista software I have is a DVD: "Upgrade your Windows Vista Experience" and in the top right corner of the case, in tiny font it reads "Includes 32-bit software" Does this mean I can use this disc to reinstall Vista on my computer? Second, after the reinstall is complete will I have the necessary drivers? My old laptop (Dell) came with a series of discs needed for all the appropriate drivers before I could do anything much less connect to the internet. Another problem I have is that I recently moved out of the city and my internet connection is :dead: dial-up :dead: (Maybe I should try to find a friend in the city with broadband). I don't know how much time it would take me to DL all Windows updates, driver updates, etc. Lastly, I recently bought Norton Internet Security 2008 and I'm wondering if there's a way to recover my subscription after a reformat - I bought the 3-computer package and all 3 installs have been used. Any guidance is much appreciated!

Thanks,
Krista

 

[joked u 2]

Well I have some bad news... No you can't reinstall vista with the anytime upgrade, and if you can find a vista disk, any normal disk will work, it has all the versions on it, you can reinstall it with the product key on the bottom of the computer. If you reinstall the os you will need drivers, If your computer still works, you can go to compaq and download all the drivers from their website ahead of time and save them on a flash drive or CD. Lastly, there are (for me) over 130mb of windows updates, last time i checked, which was quite some time ago. you may not have the use of internet after you format if you don't install the right drivers, so if you can go to a friends house, that might work.. I hope this helps. :

 

[Krista]

It's not a question of if I can find Vista discs. The Upgrade disc is all I have and all I have ever had. The laptop came with Vista preinstalled and the individual I bought the computer from told me that the upgrade disc was all I needed to reinstall... it's just a question of do I trust him I suppose.

Anyone else have any insight?

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm not sure what this "Anytime Update" is. But I have a Vista Upgrade disk, and you can clean install with an upgrade disk. But its a 2 part install. You first install without using your license key, then once you have a working Vista you put the disk back in, and do an 'upgrade' this time using your key.

More detailed discussion of what I'm describing here: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932

 

[Krista]

Thanks for the tip. Could you give me some basic steps on how to reformat and reinstall? (Also what does clean install mean?) I've never done it before and have only watched it being done in XP... and I've always been a bit nervous about doing something horribly wrong and completely murdering the computer. Haha. I plan to have my brother, who knows a little better than me, help me do it but any guidance or tips you could give would definitely be appreciated.

 

[SNGX1275]

I believe you can do the reformatting from within the Vista install, there isn't much of a reason to try and wipe the drive with any other methods.

A clean install just means that you start with a fresh (formatted) hard drive.

To be honest I can't remember the steps you'd do during a Vista install, I last installed it back in Feb of last year. But the install is more straightforward than XP, so I think it should be clear on what you need to do during the install to format the hard drive. You really can't screw anything up other than entering your key, remember, to do an install with the upgrade disk you don't use your key the first time. Then you "upgrade" your install that you just did and use the key that time.