Vista would not boot after updates

I had a problem recently with Vista Home Basic after reinstallation.It would not boot.I finally overcame that problem after great difficulty.But my joy is shot lived.Once I connected to internet and the updates started to install.Now, the laptop (Dell Inspirion 1545) gets into a circle of "downloading updates 3 of 3" and then shuts down and restarts.This continues.When I pressed F8 and tried to boot, there are three installations of Vista to choose from.Only the recovery installation takes me to desktop.I also noticed that the recovery drive is full-out of 14GB,only around 700MB are free.System recovery-restore are not working as there aren't any. Please let me know what to do.

Can I format the recovery drive and then reinstall with the disc provided by Dell?Please help.Much appreciate your help.Thank you.

Best-
Locksley.

 

Update- I have formatted and reinstalled on both the drives.It works like a charm.Thank you.