Re: Reinstalling Vista to a new hard drive

I think, as you say, that it's in a hidden partition on the original hard drive.

Some of your alternatives are:

1. Order an install disc from Dell
2. Buy an install disc on eBay
3. "Image" the old hard drive to the new using a utility like Acronis TrueImage;
4. Upgrade to Windows 8 ... $40 for the download version.