Going 64 bit without the pain?

I have the disk for 64 bit Vista but if I use it, it will wipe my C
drive. (You would have thought that Microsoft in all their wisdom
could have figured out a way around that)

Any road up, what is on the C drive can be reinstalled pretty easily.
On my D drive are a whole lot of apps and stuff which I will assume
will give up the ghost once the C drive is cleaned off. Is there any
way around this so that I can go 64 bit and not have to reinstall
everything on the D drive too? (I suspect that I still have about
half the original CDs)
--

Julian Richards

www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

I would not recommend installing the 64-bit version
of Windows Vista. You would have to backup your
files, perform a "clean install" of 64-bit Vista, then
reinstall all your applications (some may not be 64-bit compatible).

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Julian Richards" wrote:

I have the disk for 64 bit Vista but if I use it, it will wipe my C
drive. (You would have thought that Microsoft in all their wisdom
could have figured out a way around that)

Any road up, what is on the C drive can be reinstalled pretty easily.
On my D drive are a whole lot of apps and stuff which I will assume
will give up the ghost once the C drive is cleaned off. Is there any
way around this so that I can go 64 bit and not have to reinstall
everything on the D drive too? (I suspect that I still have about
half the original CDs)
--

Julian Richards

www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

If you don't have any 64bit applications or a compelling reason to go there,
stay with the 32 bit version for now. You will be happier.

"Julian Richards" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I have the disk for 64 bit Vista but if I use it, it will wipe my C
> drive. (You would have thought that Microsoft in all their wisdom
> could have figured out a way around that)
>
> Any road up, what is on the C drive can be reinstalled pretty easily.
> On my D drive are a whole lot of apps and stuff which I will assume
> will give up the ghost once the C drive is cleaned off. Is there any
> way around this so that I can go 64 bit and not have to reinstall
> everything on the D drive too? (I suspect that I still have about
> half the original CDs)
> --
>
> Julian Richards
>
> www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
> Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

"Julian Richards" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I have the disk for 64 bit Vista but if I use it, it will wipe my C
> drive. (You would have thought that Microsoft in all their wisdom
> could have figured out a way around that)
>
> Any road up, what is on the C drive can be reinstalled pretty easily.
> On my D drive are a whole lot of apps and stuff which I will assume
> will give up the ghost once the C drive is cleaned off. Is there any
> way around this so that I can go 64 bit and not have to reinstall
> everything on the D drive too? (I suspect that I still have about
> half the original CDs)
> --
>
> Julian Richards
>
> www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
> Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

The short answer is "no," Julian. You are talking about an install to what
is basically a different operating system. In your current setup, you have
32-bit applications looking for a 32-bit OS and existing happily in that
environment. You can go to Great Britain and speak English and be
relatively understood but there will be things not understood, cultural
differences and the geography is different than here in the colonies.

It may not be the perfect metaphor but it should give you some idea of why
it won't work. You need to start clean and you need to reinstall your apps.
Plus, you'll need to check to be sure your hardware, both internal and
peripherals have 64-bit drivers available. Beyond that, some 32-bit apps
not only will not work in a 64-bit OS, some may not even install so you'll
need to check on all your apps to see if they are 64-bit compatible or if
there are 64-bit versions available.

You should also realize, even where compatible, some of your 32-bit apps may
not perform as well as they used to, they may run slower or introduce other
issues you did not see on your 32-bit setup. Even if Microsoft figured a
way around it, you have some/many applications designed to work with various
hardware devices and drives designed for a 32-bit environment...this goes
well beyond the scope of Microsoft simply throwing a switch or writing some
conversion code, you've got dependencies and Non-Microsoft code, devices and
issues all over the place.

--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

What they said! If you don't have a compelling reason to go 64 bit, stay
with 32 and preserve your sanity ;-).

"Michael Solomon" <user@#notme.com> wrote in message
news:...
>
>
> "Julian Richards" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I have the disk for 64 bit Vista but if I use it, it will wipe my C
>> drive. (You would have thought that Microsoft in all their wisdom
>> could have figured out a way around that)
>>
>> Any road up, what is on the C drive can be reinstalled pretty easily.
>> On my D drive are a whole lot of apps and stuff which I will assume
>> will give up the ghost once the C drive is cleaned off. Is there any
>> way around this so that I can go 64 bit and not have to reinstall
>> everything on the D drive too? (I suspect that I still have about
>> half the original CDs)
>> --
>>
>> Julian Richards
>>
>> www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
>> Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"
>
> The short answer is "no," Julian. You are talking about an install to
> what is basically a different operating system. In your current setup,
> you have 32-bit applications looking for a 32-bit OS and existing happily
> in that environment. You can go to Great Britain and speak English and be
> relatively understood but there will be things not understood, cultural
> differences and the geography is different than here in the colonies.
>
> It may not be the perfect metaphor but it should give you some idea of why
> it won't work. You need to start clean and you need to reinstall your
> apps. Plus, you'll need to check to be sure your hardware, both internal
> and peripherals have 64-bit drivers available. Beyond that, some 32-bit
> apps not only will not work in a 64-bit OS, some may not even install so
> you'll need to check on all your apps to see if they are 64-bit compatible
> or if there are 64-bit versions available.
>
> You should also realize, even where compatible, some of your 32-bit apps
> may not perform as well as they used to, they may run slower or introduce
> other issues you did not see on your 32-bit setup. Even if Microsoft
> figured a way around it, you have some/many applications designed to work
> with various hardware devices and drives designed for a 32-bit
> environment...this goes well beyond the scope of Microsoft simply throwing
> a switch or writing some conversion code, you've got dependencies and
> Non-Microsoft code, devices and issues all over the place.
>
> --
> Michael Solomon
> Backup is a PC user's best friend
> DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 16:03:52 -0400, "Ed Forsythe"
<> wrote:

>What they said! If you don't have a compelling reason to go 64 bit, stay
>with 32 and preserve your sanity ;-).

Thanks to all yourself and all the others who replied. I guess that I
will sit tight as I am. It does seem silly on the face of it that I
have a 64 bit processor and the best thing to do with it is to stay 32
bit.

Not wishing to stoke up the fires in this group but I have had a play
with the live CD version of Kubuntu that is 64 bit and optimised for
AMD dual cores.
--

Julian Richards

www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"

Perhaps you could install Vista 64 on your D drive as a second
operating system, an alternative to play around with. (It's not
a good idea to install a second operating system into a
partition that already has a Windows installation.)

Hans-Georg
--
No mail, please.

Julian Richards wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 16:03:52 -0400, "Ed Forsythe"
> <> wrote:
>
>> What they said! If you don't have a compelling reason to go 64 bit, stay
>> with 32 and preserve your sanity ;-).
>
> Thanks to all yourself and all the others who replied. I guess that I
> will sit tight as I am. It does seem silly on the face of it that I
> have a 64 bit processor and the best thing to do with it is to stay 32
> bit.
>
> Not wishing to stoke up the fires in this group but I have had a play
> with the live CD version of Kubuntu that is 64 bit and optimised for
> AMD dual cores.
> --
>
> Julian Richards
>
> www.richardsuk.f9.co.uk
> Website of "Robot Wars" middleweight "Broadsword IV"


If you want to try the 64 bit version the best way might be to invest in
another drive. If your machine has SATA and you have a 5 1/4 bay empty
you can get a fairly compact tray which would allow you to swap from one
version to another and any other OS you want to play with very easily
but also without the problems that dual booting can create.

I don't think you will see any performance benefits, you likely will see
some losses with some applications, and drivers are harder to find.
That's why I really think what looks like the more complex route turns
out to be just as easy and a bit safer.

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:08:52 +0100, Julian Richards
<> sang the following hymns:

>On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 16:03:52 -0400, "Ed Forsythe"
><> wrote:
>
>>What they said! If you don't have a compelling reason to go 64 bit, stay
>>with 32 and preserve your sanity ;-).
>
>Thanks to all yourself and all the others who replied. I guess that I
>will sit tight as I am. It does seem silly on the face of it that I
>have a 64 bit processor and the best thing to do with it is to stay 32
>bit.
>
>Not wishing to stoke up the fires in this group but I have had a play
>with the live CD version of Kubuntu that is 64 bit and optimised for
>AMD dual cores.

On the other hand,if you machine is new so that the hardware is
upported and if you have a 64 bit processor you will be ready for the
future. I see many people here post they haven't any problems. I will
use 64 bit soon. I have it right here! All I nee dis my new mobo.

--

Verger

"What are we in time going by"-- Mountain ( For Yasgur's Farm)

Not to rain on anyone's parade so-to-speak, I have been running Hom
Premium 64 bit for about 5 months. I personally see a difference i
speed from the 32 bit version.
The important thing to do before you install is go to all the vendo
sites of your hardware / peripherals and download 64 bit versions of th
drivers.
For my particular system, there are:
Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse drivers available in 64bit.
My ATI Radeon has 64bit drivers
Even my Motrola RAZR V3T has 64bit drivers available.
My only problem was replacing my Canon scanner as the previous on
wasn't supported.
All my software works (I don't use any older software)
All 32 bit software runs fine including iTunes.
There are 64 bit software packages available such as Maya 8.0

Just make sure to save all personal data such as your email an
favorites to a different drive.

I found the transition somewhat painless - albeit - a little tim
consuming to reinstall software - but a VERY stable and fast system.

I think it was worth it.
Why have a 64 bit platform and not take advantage of it?

Cheers

--
MarkyMarc43