[Sparticus]

Assuming that you don't want any data that may be on the drive, when you install Vista, select the option to delete all the partitions on the drive and create a new one (look for the image below). This should ensure that all the space on the drive is available so you have enough room to upgrade to Windows 10 (which you should definitely do in preference to Vista). Vista is no longer supported and is now full of security holes.

[Zeneta]

Thanks.

My choices of “Where to Install” looked different.

Partition 1: was about 27gb and was labeled as “Primary”

Partition 2: was about ~100 gb and was labeled as “Logical”

I had no choice to “Delete” or “Format”, just “Refresh” or “Load”.

I’d love to reformat the drive and start from scratch.

[Dalberg-Acton]

If the laptop has a reserved system RESTORE partition, wouldn’t he need to boot from it and restore the original OS?