Dell :: Big Time Clean Install Problems With SXPS 13

I decided to try and do the whole clean install thing with my SXPS 13 today and - well, now I'm completely freaked out and regret it completely. I kind of wish I was warned it wouldn't be so simple for a newbie laptop user, because this has been the most computer-related stress I've had in my entire life. Now I feel like I've permanently wrecked my new $1500 laptop because I have no clue what to do about the huge mistake I've made.

First of all, it seems to me like my entire computer has slown down. I downloaded iTunes on the original install within a minute or two; now, it takes 15 minutes. Internet pages come up slower than before it seems to. (I had some issues at first installing the driver for the wireless thing)

I did put the Dell Driver disc in, of course; I was so freaked out I went through everything I could, extracted then installed, because I didn't know what was supposed to go on and what wasn't (it didn't let me download drivers for things I didn't have, of course).

When I first started it up, Windows new rating for my computer was 1.0. I made it do it again, and it went up (5.3), fortunately, but it can't help but make me think what else I might be missing.

Another red flag is that when I go back to the Dell Driver disc, and I try to install something to see if I already did it, it asks if I would like to "create" the file as nothing existed their before. As I was 90% sure I did install it once before, I tried it with one I new I installed. It went through as if I never installed it, so I'm afraid if every time I restart my computer isn't going to work unless I take the time to reinstall every driver.

There has to be something huge I'm missing here. If anyone can think of anything, please let me know. Also, please let me know if anyone knows of a guide to the clean install on this computer (I already looked at Microsoft's Vista Clean Install guide, obviously that doesn't fix all the Dell driver problems) .....