G1S Vista installation questions. (Quite a lot of them)

Hi. When I got my G1S, I wiped the whole drive clean and made 3 partitions:
1. For XP
2. For Vista (which is empty)
3. For Files

I installed XP only so far. However I deleted all the hidden partitions too because I didn't think I needed them. So now I want to install Vista. But I have a few questions:

• What exactly does the recovery cd do? Is it going to revert the WHOLE drive back to factory config and would that also include all the ASUS bloatware or just a barebone Vista installation?
• Do I need those hidden drives? I heard they have something to do with recovery, but are they really needed/useful? Also how would I get them back if I need them?
• And should I just use Vista? XP has given me some problems on the G1S, especially with the graphics drivers.

So yeah. I got the recovery CD and the shop I bought the laptop from gave me a Vista CD which is a copy, but I have the original serial anyway. Which one should I use?
Also it would be nice if someone can post links to any guides to optimize Vista and what I should do after I installed it.
Sorry for so many questions...
Thanks!

 

The recovery cd does not install the ASUS programs unless you insert the drivers cd when prompted. I believe the vista cd gives you more disk options at teh start but they both will give you a clean install.
The hidden partition is a recovery partition. Once deleted you can't get it back.
I jsut use vista - too much of a pain to get Xp working properly but some have been able to. Do a search.

I recommend doing this to optimize vista:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=162906

and then this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532

 

Thanks for the reply. So what exactly is the recovery partition for? And does the recovery cd wipe the whole drive or just a partition clean?

 

The recovery partition from what I understand is basically the same thing as that restore disc that comes with it.
I have no about how the restore CD works though, I think it might wipe everything however. I've only booted from it once and got confused a bit over what it was asking so I just used a different real vista install dvd to fix my boot problems.