How Do I Re-Install Vista?

[kaw69]

Hi
I have an 80 Gb drive, 40 in C and 40 in D.
My C drive is completely full but there is 20 Gb free in D, all photo`s docs etc have been moved to D, so all that is in C is Microsoft stuff and I daren`t move those as it will almost certainly crash my pc forever.
I have backed up all my files, docs etc onto an external drive.
I have even tried booting off this 1 TB drive with no luck so I want to format and re-install Vista but it came pre-installed with no disks.
My pc has a Microsoft license/product sticker on the side.
Q. How do I format and re-install my pc to the first time I turned it on.
TIA

[ukbod2015]

https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN117599/EN#

this pretty much covers everything but the sticking point is an 80gb hard disk very small by modern standards. A replacement 500gb at £32.44 would be a much better bet
http://www.ebuyer.com/272944-seagate-500gb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-st500dm002

[kaw69]

Hi ukbod
I have a 1Tb usb external drive, copied all my C drive files but I can`t get it to boot from it any suggestions?

[ukbod2015]

copying your files across doesnt necessarily make it the boot drive. you can probably pickup a Vista disk and license very cheap off Ebay although i`d advise you to go for Win 7 -if you do a full installation on your external drive you can change the boot to go there first and effectively use it as your c drive with the old ones as slaves

[bhg481]

With Vista you should have had the opportunity to create yourself a set of Recovery Discs. I think it's a one-off option ie, once you've done it you can't do it again. Since I did it several years ago I can't check exactly how you can do it but, hopefully, I can point you in the right direction.
Go to "control panel > backup and restore centre". There you should be given the option to create a set of recovery discs. Follow the directions and you will end up with 2 or 3 DVDs.
Close down your PC, remove the system disc, replace it with your new, bigger one. Boot up your PC with recovery disc 1 in your DVD drive. Follow the instructions and you should end up with your new disc being the system disc and your computer should then be able to boot from it. You will then have to re-install all your personal programs.
If the process fails you've lost nothing, as you can put your old disc back in and you're back where you started. I did this a few years ago to increase the capacity of my system disc and it worked OK. Try it - you've nothing to lose except the cost of a few DVDs and some of your time.

[kaw69]

I have had my pc since Vista came out and the 80 Gb seemed massive at the time but now even if I re-install Vista with Microsoft updates it would soon be full again.
So I am making the leap of faith to Win 7 onto my usb 1 Tb drive, hope it works
Thanks to all

[ukbod2015]

Win 7 is very good get the Pro if you can.