Dual boot 32 and 64-bit Vista

I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and recently
discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
64-bit compatible.

Hi,

Yes, it is. You'll need to carve out space on the drive for the second
installation, and you'll need an additional license for Vista. To carve out
space, run diskmgmt.msc and shrink the existing volume. At a minimum I'd
suggest you allow 20-25GB for the x64 install. If disk manager cannot carve
out that much, you'll need to use a third party tool like Acronis Disk
Manager or BootIT NG (disk manager may run into unmoveable files and cannot
shrink a volume beyond that, the other programs can).

Once space has been created, boot with the x64 disk and begin setup. You can
create the new partition and format it as part of setup. Select it and
installation should be pretty straight forward from there. Setup will create
the dual boot menu as part of the installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"pbl" <> wrote in message
news:7CB42096-6A7E-4D76-8D6F-...
>I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and recently
>discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
>possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
>64-bit compatible.

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 18:42:52 +1000, "pbl" <> wrote:

> I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and recently
> discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
> possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
> 64-bit compatible.


Yes it is (see Rick Rogers's reply), but why do you want to do this?
There is likely no advantage to your doing so.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 18:42:52 +1000, "pbl" <> wrote:
>
>> I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and
>> recently
>> discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
>> possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
>> 64-bit compatible.
>
>
> Yes it is (see Rick Rogers's reply), but why do you want to do this?
> There is likely no advantage to your doing so.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

I have some software that is not compatible with Vista 64-bit.

"Rick Rogers" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi,
>
> Yes, it is. You'll need to carve out space on the drive for the second
> installation, and you'll need an additional license for Vista. To carve
> out space, run diskmgmt.msc and shrink the existing volume. At a minimum
> I'd suggest you allow 20-25GB for the x64 install. If disk manager cannot
> carve out that much, you'll need to use a third party tool like Acronis
> Disk Manager or BootIT NG (disk manager may run into unmoveable files and
> cannot shrink a volume beyond that, the other programs can).
>
> Once space has been created, boot with the x64 disk and begin setup. You
> can create the new partition and format it as part of setup. Select it and
> installation should be pretty straight forward from there. Setup will
> create the dual boot menu as part of the installation.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
> My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
>
> "pbl" <> wrote in message
> news:7CB42096-6A7E-4D76-8D6F-...
>>I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and
>>recently discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista.
>>Is it possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that
>>is not 64-bit compatible.
>

Thanks for the help Rick.

On Sat, 4 Oct 2008 14:44:57 +1000, "pbl" <> wrote:

> "Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 18:42:52 +1000, "pbl" <> wrote:
> >
> >> I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and
> >> recently
> >> discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
> >> possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
> >> 64-bit compatible.
> >
> >
> > Yes it is (see Rick Rogers's reply), but why do you want to do this?
> > There is likely no advantage to your doing so.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>
> I have some software that is not compatible with Vista 64-bit.


OK, but if it were me, I would just run only 32-bit Vista then. Having
to reboot to run that software is a nuisance, and you will get very
little benefit from running the 64-bit version..

Alternatively, look into buying a newer version of the software that
won't run under 64-bit Vista; it may not be that much more expensive
than buying dual-boot software.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Oct 3, 4:42*am, "pbl" <p...@no.email> wrote:
> I have a hi-spec notebook with 32-bit Vista Ultimate installed and recently
> discovered that my notebook is capable of running 64-bit Vista. Is it
> possible to setup a dual boot? I have some essential software that is not
> 64-bit compatible.

You would still need to enter 2 different license keys , one for each
operating system . You can't use the same keys for both . So like Ken
said , why ?