Installing Vista fresh with new hard drive

So I just got the new 500GB western digital HD. My old 250GB WDHD is now my second hard drive. I had wiped everything off of it before backing up my copy of vista because I thought I had the real vista cd when I bought my Dell. Big mistake.

Anyway, when I try to install the ultimate update cd it tells me I need my previous version of Vista. How do I get this to work? Is this going to require me figuring out how to get my premium vista up and running on my old HD, somehow transfer it, then update? Cause that is a pain in my @$$ I don't want to go through.

PLEASE HELP ME

 

Have you contacted Dell?

 

Call or do an online chat with Dell tech support and ask them to send you the Windows disc.

 

No I have not contacted dell. I think that I can retrieve my old version of vista if need be. Should that be the route I go? Try to re-install my old version. Then how would I get that OS on to the second HD?

 

I would call Dell and ask for the disc. It's definitely easier than installing the old drive, using the restore partition (as long as you haven't reformatted the drive or deleted any partitions), and then using a disk imaging tool like Ghost to make a backup, and then restoring that backup on the new drive.

 

if this is a brand new install cd then it should just load up.

 

I second "make an image with ghost or equivalent and blow it on to the new drive. I would probably request a new disc also and get that on the way in case you were hoping to do a clean install.

Given the way that MS has based all our OS rights to the liscences that we pay for, I am surprised that they dont just let you download an ISO online or something like that.

 

If your computer came with a license for Vista, all you need is the dell oem disk. Maybe you have a friend that will allow you to borrow their disk? Then once your reinstall is complete, make an image of the fresh install.

 

I used the OEM disc as stated with the new hard drive and it installed vista. It has no drivers or anything like that though. Should I install all of these and the updates before using the anytime update disc?

Also, how could I make a ghost image on my external hard drive after I get all this figured out without buying a program?

 

Do you need to instal the OEM version first?

On XP I could instal an XP professional update on my Medion by just veryfying I had a full Vista disk by putting it into the drive during the installation.

But the Urpgrade disk may work differently...

Anyway:
You want as little "stuff" as possible when you upgrade - so I'd suggest installing your upgrade first, and then installing all the drivers.
Also, clean up your disk (temporary files, defragment it) before installing drivers.