Failing Main HD, Buying a New OS/HD

[Kirin]

So it seems that my main HD is failing now, and its also the HD that I run my OS off of. Ive been lucky enough to get the necessary info off of it, but now that im starting anew. It was a simple 60 gig HD, and I was running a less than legal copy of XP.

So now that im getting rid of the rotten one, looking to move up to a 250 gig seagate, as there are some nice deals on newegg at the moment. Along with that though in the purchase of a new OS, should I stick with XP or look into Vista. I don't know much about Vista outside compatability issues with some programs and whatnot that the press enjoyed to point at, or if it would even be worth sticking with XP at this point. I would like to keep this change as light on the bank account as possible, but in looking at overall prices between XP and Vista, and how cheap HD's are now...if its worth the extra 40-50 bucks in the end for Vista, idunno.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Cephius]

Vista isn't worth it unless you really want it, just go with an OEM copy of XP and you should be set.

[Omniyoji]

^ that

I suggest to others to just stick with XP till the new windows version coming in 2010? 2012?

[Kohan]

^ that

I suggest to others to just stick with XP till the new windows version coming in 2010? 2012?

Thirded. Stay with XP.

I have a dual-boot system with XP x86 and XP x64, and only need to boot into the 32-bit version for one piece of hardware.