Windows Vista Extracting OS from preinstallation and creating an image of a drive

Hi

I recently bought an HP laptop and with Vista pre-installed. It’s also got other programs like Norton, kids games, MS Works, etc none of which I need or want.
The laptop did not come with any Vista or recovery discs "“ it’s a DIY job using the Recovery Manager. No big deal "“ I can manage that.
But there are 2 things I’d like that I can’t, so far, manage.

1 "“ a copy of vista on a disc. Nothing else. Just Vista. A disc that will allow me to re-install if the hard drive dies or I can’t get Vista to boot. I have the serial number on a label on the machine but no disc.

2 "“ a copy of my hard drive now. The recovery partition re-installs Norton, Works, kids games etc and leaves me without around 400mb of MS updates. If I could get an image of my drive just now then it would include the OS, Office 2007, Anti virus, firewall and a couple of other minor programs.

Can I extract a copy of Vista onto a disc from my hard drive and how do I create a clone or image of my hard drive just now??

Many thanks
D

 

Thanks Pete.
I said in my original post there is a recovery manager which is used to make the recovery discs. I presume it will use the original factory settings though meaning i lose my windows updates and any additional programs i've installed.

I'll have a look at acronis for making an image. If possible i'll keep a copy on an external drive and on a dvd so i've got a couple of copies.

thanks for the acronis tip.
D

 

Thanks Pete.
I'm currently writing my receovery discs but i'll look into Acronis software since you mentioned that. I think it sounds like something i need to do to save me relaoding everything again and downloading hundreds of mb of updates for my programs.

thanks again
Dave

 

Buy the Acronis software you will thank yourself many times over! Instead of hours or days recovering when something @#*) Acronis will easily and practically effortlessly bring you back from the brink. I know!