Vista - Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista

Thanks Shawn for confirming me of my initial thought of doing. I've read somewhere on this forum that you can only dual boot with the latest(upgraded) OS version as a primary boot drive but not the other way around. So, I will heed your advice and hopefully I will prefer the Ultimate.

Thanks again.

You're welcome AbsentMinded.

There are ways around it, but it's pretty involved and a fresh install would be best to prevent problems from any potential mistake made try to work around it.

What a disappointment and confusion !!!
I forgot to mention that the Home Basic is a laptop and quite old. It was a free gift so no complaint from me. Anyhow, I didn't realize that it only have 446mb of RAM. WHAT??? I thought Vista Basic only comes with the 512 mb of RAM(at least) as stated on the Microsft website:
Is it possible that I might have lost some of the RAM elsewhere, such as Music files/Pictures/Antivirus or any heavy programs...e.t.c. If that's the case, it would still indicate the original Memory when it was built, correct?
Is there any way to increase my laptop's RAM w/o spending any $$$? I know it's inexpensive and I'm not a miser but I'm in a tight financial situation, therefore any $$$ can be saved is a great deal to me.

Thanks.

Most likely you do have 512 MB of RAM, but have 56 MB of it dedicated to a integrated video chip. The only way to increase your though is to purchase and add more to your laptop, if the laptop can hold more or replace the current RAM sticks with larger size ones.

Hi,

If i backed up all my important files onto an external and left it plugged in the PC then reformated Vista, will my external be wiped or clean as well or not? Should i unplugg it?

Hello Joronamo,

It wil not be affect as long as you do not select it by mistake to install Vista on.

Hey brink i dont understand step one "boot the system from you DVD drive". How do you do that? Do you just boot the DVD inside and then boot up?

Yep, you just place the Vista installation DVD in the drive and restart the computer, then be sure to press a key (step 2) before the 8 seconds is up.