Thank you for all the help, CCT, Ferrit and slgried - After going through all the "hoops" and Live CDs, I finally just pulled data off the laptop, deleted both partitions and created one large C Drive. From there, the Install CD just took off and ran through the whole sequence without a hitch. I downloaded and installed the drivers, updated everything and it's done.

Not a minute too soon - my son left for college 3 hours later. Seems like I've been looking at that laptop forever - Again, many thanks.