Anyone know a procedure for reinstalling Vista on a 1420?

. . . and if you don't know what to do, can you point me to a link that does?

I ask because the computer came with a "restore" disk, but I don't know if that has OS reinstall software on it or not. Also, Dell makes 4 partitions before they ship it to you, one being the "restore" partition.

I was planning on making an image of the machine in its current state first and then loading Ubuntu on it to run that for awhile, knowing that an image should save me if I have any problems, however I'd like to know what the process might be if you wanted to do a clean install of Vista w / Dell Dock (I actually like feature that for some reason). Because you never know when the tired old HDD I used to make an Image is going to die.

 

If you have no idea how to use windows restore disc, nore know what each of your 4 partitions are..I would stay far away from ubuntu and linux.

 

I've done it before, however I usually build the PCs and set them up myself. It is a little different when you pay big bucks for someone else configuration-and they give you no documentation or discs as to how to take advantage of the restore. I am just trying to sort out the essential bits from the truly none-essential ones. Ubuntu, by the way, makes it really easy to dual boot your system during its install. You just have to prep some partitions for it usually. Getting rid of it on the other hand . . . that was pretty scary.