Reinstalling Vista on an Acer 3690

I don't know how e get caught up in these things but sometimes we just do. My friends laptop Acer 3690 is really screwed up with malware and possibly some viruses/torjens. He does not know anything about computers so I opened my big mouth saying "Oh, it'll be easy, I'll just go to the factory restore partition and reset it for you." Well, now I know the Acer 3690 does not have a restore partition. My friend was supposed to make a back up of the system on disks when he first set the thing up.

So now here I am wondering if I use my Vista disk and his Vista key if I can get his laptop back in usable state. From past experience I know that laptops can be fussy with a windows reinstall if you do not have the correct drivers to install on the system. SO I went to Acer and downloaded ever driver they had for this system.

Now I am wondering if any of you have done this on the same system and if there are any particular problems I should look out for? I am using my Vista Ultimate disk but I figure if I enter his key it will work for his version that came installed. But I could be wrong there too. Any suggestions or tips?

The laptop is messed up. I don't know how he used it. it takes about ten minutes to boot. and about 3 or minutes to register what you are doing when you use the interface. So I feel the only option is a reinstall, if I can.

 

If you have a Vista Ultimate only DVD and his key is anything but Ultimate, it won't work. Now if you have one of those Vista anytime upgrade DVD's with all versions of Vista, it will work.

 

Hmmm. I've done it on an Acer with a Dell disc and it worked fine. Just have to go in and delete any stuff from Dell(or other Manufacturer) and change the computer Manufactuer icon/picture in computer properties.