HI, I would like to upgrade my win7pro/32bit to 64bit. So far as I see Microsoft, while providing the 64bit install disk, says you lose your 32bit data? Is there a way around this? I am not looking for a free solution, tho that would be nice, just a solution. Any help would be most appreciated.
Regards Dave Wheeler
dave,
Check out using the Windows Easy Transfer Utility on your WIndows 7 32 bit installation as a way of saving the data files and email. I used that route to go from XP 32 bit to Windows 7 32 and works smoothly enough for me.
NOTE MS says you can't use WET to transfer files from a 64 bit Windows to a 32 bit Windows but I've looked everywhere and I can't see it saying that you cannot use it for transferring from 32 bit Windows to 64 bit Windows but I'll do some more looking around. And so far as I know you can use it under Windows 7 although not intended for that but I'll do some checking.
Since it's built into Windows 7 I guess that you can use it as I suggest -- just not from64 to 32 bit.
Here's some very clear information on WET:
When you do the upgrade remember also to save your Norton Identity Safe data to a safe place since I don't know if it gets included or not. From my memory of WET at one point during starting it after it scans the computer for files you can look at a file tree like you see in explorer but with check boxes that you can check or uncheck to add or remove files to be transferred.
It's also a little odd that you run WET after you finish installing Windows but BEFORE you install the applications that are going to use the data files. I think this is for upgrades where Windows 7 puts things in different places or changes names.
Also in order to upgrade to a 64 bit OS when the computer has a 32 bit OS running you must boot up to the 64 bit Installation Disk or you will get an error message that the installer is not compatible. You can't start the installation from within the 32 bit OS.
And Dave does ask a valid question -- do you have a real need for a 64 bit system? If you are doing a lot of heavy image editing or video work then the ability to use more than 4GB of RAM can be useful but .... ?
HI, I would like to upgrade my win7pro/32bit to 64bit. So far as I see Microsoft, while providing the 64bit install disk, says you lose your 32bit data? Is there a way around this? I am not looking for a free solution, tho that would be nice, just a solution. Any help would be most appreciated.
Regards Dave Wheeler
What Hugh said.
HI,
Don't have a great need however I have a quad core I7, 2.67Ghz CPU and am limited to 3Gb main memory. I am 82 of age but still enjoy "whacking" a monster from time to time and am told by the gaming experts that I would see a significant increase in performance by going to 64bit 8gb memory. Might be a flakey excuse but if it don't cost a great deal and doesn't require I return and get an update on my EE then I'll take a shot?
Regards Dave Wheeler
Dave .... You youngsters, always want to play with the grownups! <gdr> [I'm 5 years ahead of you ....]
Something that just occurred to me if you are like you sound and have either a spare hard drive or say about 40GB of empty space on your hard drive .... why not dual boot by adding Windows 7 64 bit alongside your 32 bit?
Then you can try it out firstly with the RAM you have installed and then by adding to it.
It's remarkably easy to do since Windows 7 has built into it the ability to shrink a partition on your hard drive which you can then make into a new empty logical drive into which you can install Windows 7 64 bit by selecting Custom when it comes up on the screen and directing it to install in that new drive you created ... it will do just that and give you a menu when you start up the computer where you choose which version of Windows you can use.
Windows 7 should give you a 20 day trial period without activating it (they've dropped that in Windows 8 which is next to come) and I have a sneaking suspicion that if you wanted to keep both systems you could enter the KEY that came with your set of disks and it will activate since all the hardware is the same.
You could then add the RAM you are talking about -- not that expensive these days -- and see if you did get the benefits they talk about.
What do you think?
Before doing anything more if you are interested could you give details of the PC -- is it a retail model or custom built? If retail could you give the exact make and model details so I can check the specification. I presume you did run the Microsoft checker for compatability with Windows 7 64 bit ..... if not let me know and I'll give you the URL to it.
This can be important since I could not install the 64 bit version on my previous desktop because there were no drivers for the ethernet chip on the motherboard.
Do you have any oldish hardware that you want to continue to use? Printers or scanners because again many of them don't have drivers that Windows 7 64 bit can use.
Dave,
Adding ot my message about dual booting -- if it interests you to look further at this can you look at the properties tab for your hard drive and say how much is occupied and how much is free space.
Is this a laptop or a desktop?
Hi Hugh,
My Sys is a Gateway FX6800-01e and I have 4 disk drives all with lots of free space, after all I retired as a GM of a section of Seagate and have maintained some contact with the Company. I will try the dual boot but will probably be next week due to medical commitments tomorrow and thru the weekend.
I thank you for your assistance in this matter.......................
Regards Dave Wheeler
Dave,
Looks like you should be OK from this list of the specification since it says it came with VISTA 64 bit ....
Did you ever come across John Treder at Seagate? He was a designer with several of the big disk drivers makers and is now a regular in the Compuserve forums I hang out in. He retired a few years ago.
The advantage of trying out the dual boot is that you can limit what you have to transfer at first to what would test out the extremes and if it's not worth the change just go back to 32 bit ..... and you can drag and drop stuff across in a file manager if it doesn't need installing.
Let us know how you get on ....