Vista Reinstall question

Hi,

I have a 2 year old Sony Viao and I need to reinstall my OS and wipe my drive in the process. Problem is I only have the recovery disks available and I would really like to aviod doing 2+ years of OS and service pack updates if at all possilble. Are there any legitimate means of acquiring later versions of Vista for an install? I also would not mind notinstalling all the bloatware that comes with a recovery install. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

Im not sure if you can buy Vista at all anymore, I did a quick search on newegg and couldn't find anything.
In addition, If it were my computer, I wouldn't bother with purchasing a new copy of Vista.
Instead I would purchase new copy of Windows 7.
You can find a reasonably priced copy of Win7 here. Just make sure you don't purchase the upgrade, you want the full version.

hope this helps.

Fry

 

Thanks. I was not looking to purchase - was just wondering if there were any legal ways to get a more up to date version of Vista to reinstall on my system other than using my restore DVDs.

 

You can make a system restore disk that has up to date service packs. basically your making a new windows disk.
Try this site. Create a Recovery Disc - Vista Forums

 

Sweet, thanks. I will check it out.

 

Why not? Upgrade is cheaper (and actually legit to use, since computer already has eligible OS) and it can also be used to do clean install just like a full version.

 

Well what I do when reinstalling my vista is as follows, (assuming it's Vista).
Backup your folder 'C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download' - (this consists of all your windows updates), this way when you reinstall you just need to replace this folder into your 'C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder, then you have an up to date system without having to wait around all day on updates.
Then Back up your system again before installing anything else.