I got a new HP Pavilion dv6000us laptop for Christmas with a free upgrade to
Vista premium.

The other day the upgrade disc came, and it seemed easy enough to install.
As urged, I made one of those "All-in-One" recovery disc sets -- just in
case.

I was no more than three or four steps into the install before things
started to go haywire. I finally got Vista installed, but all my files were
lost. And in addition, it allowed me no more than 1040 by 768 screen
resolution.

So I used the recovery discs to go back to XP. I could only get a clean new
reinstall -- all my files were lost.

Just a cautionary note. If you want Vista, buy a machine with it already
installed.