Convert completely to 64 bit or go 32/64 dual boot?

ITDEFX

ITDEFX

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I noticed in the other deals forum that there is a special promo going on right now for people with edu emails. Windows 7 pro for 30 bucks. There is the option for both 32/64 bits of the software.


For over 10 years I have been dual booting various forms of windows whether it was XP home and XP Pro or my current set up of Vista Home/XP Pro. The reason for this is because I like to have all my graphic related programs to have the most access to my system resources and so on. Also the fact if something goes wrong under XP Home (where I can't boot to it), I can always boot to XP Pro and begin back up procedures in order to reformat the drive and start all over again if needed. Also under XP Pro, I have no games and do lite internet so there isn't any bloat ware or anything to slow down the machine.

I was thinking of doing the following.

-Keep Vista Home 32 and just upgrade XP Pro to Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

-Get both Windows 7 32/64.

-Have Windows 7 get rid of both set ups and upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit completely.


I don't know if I can make Windows 7 wipe out XP Pro 32bit if I were to have just one OS on the machine. I am thinking that a complete format will have to occur for this to happen. Or should I keep some 32 bit OS (Vista/Pro/W7) for legacy/compatibility purposes while doing the W7 64bit dual boot?

Thanks
 
[quote name='SEH']I don't see the point in running 32bit OS'es at all anymore.[/QUOTE]


The only thing that is forcing me to upgrade to 64 bit is that Adobe is making certain products 64 bit only :(

However the idea of having more than 4 gigs of usable ram is exciting.

What is the backwards compatibility rate on W7 64 bit on XP 32 bit products?
 
The only issue I've run into is say DVD43 won't run on a 64bit box when I was building my HTPC.

Other than that, almost all programs that don't need access to hardware level should work just fine.

I have the wife running PhotoDraw v2.... that's at least 11 years old now.

The biggest issue would be if you have any 16bit apps, 7 64bit won't run those at all.
 
I'll just say I've used a 64bit OS exclusively for at least the past six years and have never had any kind of compatibility issues.
 
I've only had an issue with one software called HD Writer which Panasonic provided for my HD camcorder. It's never been supported for 64-bit and I haven't got around to looking for another editing program. But otherwise I've had 64-bit Win7 for about 2-3years now and its' been fine.
 
Been using 64-bit for a year now and absolutely no issues. Just upgrade. It's worth just to have more than 4 gigs of ram available.
 
I very rarely see a program that does not work on 64 bit Windows, maybe only once or twice over the past 4/5 years. (majority of the time, if it doesn't work w/ Win 7 64 bit, it doesn't work with 32 either due to no driver support, mainly printers)
 
I have dual boot win xp 32 and win 7 64 and i haven't even booted to win xp for over a year. Have not had a single program that wont run on win 7, but i have a 12 year old journada that refuses to work with it but not entirely sure its windows 7 or my new computer and hell its 12 years old its worthless anyway.
 
So what you are saying is that every game/application can run fine under Windows 7 64 bit including legacy XP home 32 big games?
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']So what you are saying is that every game/application can run fine under Windows 7 64 bit including legacy XP home 32 big games?[/QUOTE]

Whoever said that is LYING.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']But are you guys saying go FULL 64 bit and get rid of the dual boot 32/64 or keep dual boot?[/QUOTE]

Personally I'd probably go with dual boot Windows 7 64-bit/Windows XP Pro 32-bit. That pretty much covers any new game/old game compatibility issues. I've been using GAG Boot Manager for about 4 years now with a Vista Ultimate 64-bit/Win XP Pro 32-bit setup and it's been rock solid reliable. I haven't had to reinstall either O/S since I first installed them either.
 
or you can buy Pro/Ultimate 7 and have Win XP as a virtual client (windows) inside 7. Much easier to configure and maintain.
 
[quote name='BigPopov']or you can buy Pro/Ultimate 7 and have Win XP as a virtual client (windows) inside 7. Much easier to configure and maintain.[/QUOTE]

I've never done a VC before with windows. :|

[quote name='redline']Personally I'd probably go with dual boot Windows 7 64-bit/Windows XP Pro 32-bit. That pretty much covers any new game/old game compatibility issues. I've been using GAG Boot Manager for about 4 years now with a Vista Ultimate 64-bit/Win XP Pro 32-bit setup and it's been rock solid reliable. I haven't had to reinstall either O/S since I first installed them either.[/QUOTE]

The change over to 64 bit is because of adobe's requirements for AE and Premiere
http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/faq.html

I just wanted something dedicated to graphics only and then vista home/windows 7 32 for gaming/internet only.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']I've never done a VC before with windows. :|[/QUOTE]

Pro and Ultimate come with the capability to download (from Microsoft's servers) "Windows Virtual PC" it's basically downloading 2 things, letting them install themselves, and a Win XP client is up and working on your PC. No CD keys, hassles, configuring or anything. It's really nice.
 
Nearly any 32bit program will work on 64bit no problem. The main issue comes from older software. Anything that is 16bit or has a 16bit installer will choke up on the idea of even running on 64bit windows. The 32bit is done through emulation, which is never perfect, but incompatibilities with 32 bit software is pretty rare. If you are that worried go ahead with the dual boot, but I would make the 32bit partition relatively small as you are likely not going to need it much.
 
[quote name='BigPopov']Pro and Ultimate come with the capability to download (from Microsoft's servers) "Windows Virtual PC" it's basically downloading 2 things, letting them install themselves, and a Win XP client is up and working on your PC. No CD keys, hassles, configuring or anything. It's really nice.[/QUOTE]

I was just going to suggest this...

[quote name='n25philly']Nearly any 32bit program will work on 64bit no problem. The main issue comes from older software. Anything that is 16bit or has a 16bit installer will choke up on the idea of even running on 64bit windows. The 32bit is done through emulation, which is never perfect, but incompatibilities with 32 bit software is pretty rare. If you are that worried go ahead with the dual boot, but I would make the 32bit partition relatively small as you are likely not going to need it much.[/QUOTE]


Bingo.

I've been building PCs for years, and have only run into a 32bit/64bit compatibility issue once. It was a 16bit piece of software that I didn't need or want...but installed it anyways because I was being stupid. In any case, 64bit is now preferred. Go with it and you'll be just fine.
 
Ok.......so I go all 64bit.... how would I be able to upgrade from my current Vista 32/XP pro 32 into all 64 bit?

-Upgrade just XP pro 32 to W7 64bit?
-Upgrade Vista 32 to W7 64bit?
or will I have to format the hard drive to wipe out both OS's..but I am pretty sure 1 OS is on one hard drive and the other is on another hard drive. If I format the primary drive, I don't think I would have to worry about the second OS (XP pro) because there will be no boot menu to get to the other so I can manually delete it from the second hard drive.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Ok.......so I go all 64bit.... how would I be able to upgrade from my current Vista 32/XP pro 32 into all 64 bit?

-Upgrade just XP pro 32 to W7 64bit?
-Upgrade Vista 32 to W7 64bit?
or will I have to format the hard drive to wipe out both OS's..but I am pretty sure 1 OS is on one hard drive and the other is on another hard drive. If I format the primary drive, I don't think I would have to worry about the second OS (XP pro) because there will be no boot menu to get to the other so I can manually delete it from the second hard drive.[/QUOTE]

To answer your questions...

1.) You cannot upgrade XP to Win 7, period. You may perform a data migration from the XP machine to the Win 7 partition using the migration assistant within Windows. I would just back up all of your data, and perform a clean install of Win 7 64 bit.

2.) You may upgrade to Win 7 from Vista, but only with like OS's. So if you have Vista 32 bit, you can only upgrade to Win 7 32 bit and so on. Again, I would recommend backing up, and a clean install of Win 7 64 bit.

If you format the entire hard drive, then it will wipe out the entire drive, including all data and OS's located on the drive. Is there a reason you still want to keep XP and/or Vista for any particular reason? I understand the data, but that can be backed up. You can run a virtualized XP machine within Win 7 itself with a free download from MS. So you should be good there. Vista is practically useless so no need to keep that lol.

If you have 2 hard drives, then you can format one , and leave the other intact with no problems. Just be sure to format the correct drive. Yes, it sounds stupid, but it only takes one time to never forget! Lol!
 
I know I should know this, but haven't thought about it for a long time. Do we still have to worry about using a 64-bit CPU for 64-bit OS? I remember having an older AMD processor labeled as 64-bit that's about 5 yrs old. I have some Core 2 Duo machines that I want to change from XP SP3 32bit to Win 7 pro 64bit.
 
[quote name='boneless']I know I should know this, but haven't thought about it for a long time. Do we still have to worry about using a 64-bit CPU for 64-bit OS? I remember having an older AMD processor labeled as 64-bit that's about 5 yrs old. I have some Core 2 Duo machines that I want to change from XP SP3 32bit to Win 7 pro 64bit.[/QUOTE]

As far as I know, all Core 2 processors and later from intel and everything after the athlon 64 from amd are 64-bit. You should have no problem from your processors.
 
If you have a .edu email address, you can get Windows 2008 R2 for free from dreamspark.com.

Windows 2008 R2 is a superset of Windows 7
 
But being a server platform you're more limited in the things you can do with Server 2008 from a consumer standpoint.

You won't be able to install a free AV except PC Tools, and maybe a few other obscure ones. And some programs/hardware, unless it specifically supports Server, will not work on it (for example, lower end printers w/o Server support), games in particular.

It's a great platform and you can learn alot of really useful skills having a Server 2008 machine at your house, but it's not really built for consumers in mind.

If the $30 deal for EDU addresses and windows 7 get that
 
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