Novice Updating 1525 Drivers, Bios etc

Hi all - I just got my first laptop, a Dell 1525, it's a used one but pretty nice

Thing is I don't think that the previous owners updated anything... ever... lol and I was wondering if, for instance bios updates are like Windows service pack updates in that they are cumulative? I went to the Dell download site and it had 17 driver updates for this service tag. The original bios version for this machine was v.09, I did the update and it's is now v.17 - but the question is, should I have done a bunch in between somehow?

On their website Dell says the v17 bios update just changes the pre-charge timeout from 2 to 6 hours (whatever that means lol) and what I'd like to know is have I missed better - as in more useful - bios features by not doing all the bios updates that must have come between my original v.09 and the current v.17?

Also, if one puts the system back to factory - does it erase your data? (seems likely to me) Do you lose driver updates? (again seems likely) But you must not lose bios right - since the bios is flashed and comes before the O/S?

I really want to get this system clean and sorted, but I have zero laptop experience and have heard you can render them inoperable if you do something wrong to their back up partition. On ebay I have seen new 1525's come with what looks like 4 colored disks, but I only was given one disk when I bought this so I am afraid to erase the drive and do a truly clean install. The amount of junk software on here is unbelievble, and if you disable it Vista just nags and nags that you have shut it off - it's all making me crazy.

Could any other 1525 owner out there tell me what is on the disks I'm missing please? I have only the black disk for Dell Computer Software so I think I will lose the Roxio burning software and iTunes and such if I have no restore disks and erase that D: partition... true?

Sorry for so many questions
any help would be really appreciated

 

firstly, congrats on the purchase. i bought a 1525 for my mum and she loves it. feels and looks much more "expensive" than it actually is!

the important disk you dont wanna lose is the disk containing windows. however if you dont have that disk you can borrow someone elses disk or download a copy of windows and use your license key (on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop)

bios-install the latest bios, reformatting wont change it.

you will lose the cd burning software etc, if you dont have the disks, however i'd still reformat it and reinstall windows. drivers, itunes, etc can be downloaded from the net.

you dont really need the roxio burning software since vista already has CD burning built in, and if you upgrade to windows 7 you'll have even more cd burning options. (if you're a student, its a no-brainer, you can get the $30 student price for 7 professional)

 

Appreciate the help afhstingray, and yes it does feel pretty rich lol! Except for the sound maybe - pretty horrid without earphones actually lol.

I put in the black Dell disc the previous owners gave me - sadly there is nothing on it except the original outdated Dell drivers and utilities, all of which I already have updated copies of from the website I do wish I had the full set of discs just so I could see one time how it would have been if I had been the first owner - but guess I'll have to settle and consider myself lucky I can still read the Vista sticker on the bottom which is almost worn off.

So I must find Vista on the net now or keep the Dell partition right? Or do I still have to find Vista even with the Dell partition?

I won't miss the Roxio since it's got severe problems anyway - everytime I go to burn it trys to install itself, says it can't find a specific file, so I click cancel and instead of closing it starts installing itself again - can't find that file - I click close and on and on in a race between me and the pop up install windows until after about 20 or so times it finally opens the program! I don't like the Windows burning thing at all - I really like my Nero on my old desktop but don't want to move it here until I learn how to clean this up properly.

Do you know if all that Windows Live junk can be taken off or not installed to begin with? I can't find any uninstall for it and since I shut all the features off Vista nags like an old woman. I don't use msn mail or messenger etc... so I really hate waiting for all that stuff to load up and pop up only to have to shut it all back off again.

Guess I better go find Vista now, thanks again