Trying to reinstall Vista from an ISO and create a recovery parition

The main question is toward the end of this LONG post (in bold.) I just felt that someone may want all of the information that I could give about the situation.

I apologize if this has been addressed in another thread. I did look to try and find one. This is my first time starting a thread.

I have a used Gateway Model: MT6821. This is a 64 bit computer. The sticker beside the touchpad states that the laptop was manufactured with Vista Home Premium. Someone has apparently installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64. There was some Malware and such on it. I cleaned it up fairly well, but I wanted to do a clean wipe/ clean install. I researched for what seems like hours upon hours (to no avail) on how to restore this laptop to factory settings. I tried "advanced recovery" - didn't work. I tried to reinstall the gateway folder so I would have the options that it offered. I still do not even have a gateway folder under All Programs. At boot up, I tried F2, F8, F10, Delete button. Still nothing offered me the choice for a factory restore. I even tried the link in Microsoft that tells you how to downgrade back to Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971760/en-us - still it did not work.

Still it did not work. I was able to find the Windows.old folder but couldn't get it to cooperate with the directions I followed. I should say that before I did that, I downloaded the W7 Ultimate ISO through Microsoft and installed it. I extracted the key via some software that I downloaded prior. It would not and is not currently accepting this key. I contacted Microsoft by phone and via the chat window. One of them said that it was a non-genuine key. Another informed me that it was blocked by the manufacture, and that I would have to contact them. I called Acer since they bought out Gateway. Long story short: Your computer is over three years old. They gave me a number to a company that apparently buys and stores up old software to sell to individuals that have older computers when they need software.

Now I have downloaded the Vista SP1 ISO from this website (I really appreciate your time in providing this link.) Now my plan is to install / reinstall Vista on it, and I would love to be able to create a recovery partition in case I need it in the future. I also plan to copy a system image on DVD in case I need it later. I'm a little leery of that since I couldn't get my last image of W7 to load.

Anyway, here is the question : During the install, how can I create a recovery partition in case I need it later? I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Ps. I hope my key from the sticker on the bottom will activate it. I chatted with Microsoft this morning through chat again. They were not able to tell me if the key was any good or not. Maybe because it is OEM and/or so old, but I will try it anyway. I really don’t have a choice since my W7 Ultimate key is not working.

I hope I didn’t make this too confusing.

Thank you so very much!

I wouldn't make a recovery partition as if your hard drive fails you will be back to no operating system again.
I would use a program called Macrium Reflect and make an image of your computer and store it on an external hard drive.
I say this because any tweaks or programs you add after you are up and running will also be saved and can be recovered quickly if you ever have that hard drive failure.