What is the wisest choice for an OS and vender

[timOleary]

three computers
my wife's vista is fine and i think she has a recovery disk.
my VAIO has 7 64 bit and no problems

but my home office Dell is on the way out.the hard drive has bad
sectors.
I got it for $100 bucks and been using it a few years.

I was told that if i image the drive or create a recovery CD using my
current C drive, all the problems will be passed along to the new hdd.

I am using EaseUS TODO free 4.5 backup to an external USB Hard drive

so

I will repair one of the pcs and need to invest in an OS. (Repair
means buy a new hard drive)
I am totally fine with XP Pro, but am seeking advise.
I have never installed Windows before but am game.
Also I do not understand all the licensing issues and potential
problems buying the software on eBay.

thanks in advance

 

[philo]

three computers
my wife's vista is fine and i think she has a recovery disk.
my VAIO has 7 64 bit and no problems

but my home office Dell is on the way out.the hard drive has bad
sectors.
I got it for $100 bucks and been using it a few years.

I was told that if i image the drive or create a recovery CD using my
current C drive, all the problems will be passed along to the new hdd.

I am using EaseUS TODO free 4.5 backup to an external USB Hard drive

so

I will repair one of the pcs and need to invest in an OS. (Repair
means buy a new hard drive)
I am totally fine with XP Pro, but am seeking advise.
I have never installed Windows before but am game.
Also I do not understand all the licensing issues and potential
problems buying the software on eBay.

thanks in advance

Your machine with the bad drive may still be good enough to save.
If the OS is still working you can image the drive to another...
then replace the old one with the new...
you may very well be OK

 

[timOleary]

Your machine with the bad drive may still be good enough to save.
If the OS is still working you can image the drive to another...
then replace the old one with the new...
you may very well be OK

--https://www.createspace.com/3707686

You are right I don't have anything to lose trying
thanks for the positive thinking!.

 

[timOleary]

If you are happy with XP you could do an ebay search for a DELL
installation CD for XP.

It will install XP using a DELL factory key. It is likely you'll have to
find the SP files to do updates to SP3 and you'll have to download and
have available the driver install files.

You could image the drive and do a repair on the new drive.  That should
rewrite all the essential files and fix the OS issues.

Thanks for replying:
I do not think I have a Dell factory key.

I am not experienced so some of the ideas are beyond me. Don't I need
a source OS disk in order to repair?