Questions about Changing from 32 to 64 bit

[Crusty]

Hello, All!

I need some advice about changing from Vista Ultimate 32 bit to the 64 bit version. As many others have discovered in this forum, the 32 bit version does not properly support 4 gigs of RAM. So, after fiddling about and experiencing repeated system failures while trying to get the 4 gig to work on 32 bit, I have decided to go to the 64 bit version.

My question: can I simply install the 64 bit version over the current 32 bit? Can I just put the discs back into the machine and let Vista take it's course by ticking the 64 bit option when it appears on the load up screen?

Or, do I have to go through the entire process of re-formatting/wiping the drives and start from scratch? I am using the Ultimate version, and am not sure about these things.

My system is as follows, just in case:

3 x Western Digital 500GB Caviar SE16 SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache Hard Disk Drive (set up in raid array)
Coolermaster PSU Real Power Pro 520 520W @ £51.00(8.93) each.
4 gig OCZ 2x2GB Kit (2x1024) Gold Edition Memory DDR3 1066MHz PC3-8500 CL 7-7-7-21 Dual Channel Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader
XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 PCI-E Dual
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray & HD Combi drive Black SATA Retail
Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 USB
Asus motherboard P5E3 LGA775 Intel X38 DDR3 ATX
Intel CPU Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 95W Energy Efficient 2.4GHz SLACR G0 Stepping

Thanks for the help! Any advice is appreciated.

 

[WildEagle]

To answer your question about installing over the top of 32bit, the answer is no. You must do a fresh install when going from 32bit to 64bit. The only way you can do an upgrade is if you stick to 32bit Windows Vista.

Make sure you download and burn to a cd or dvd the 64bit drivers for your hardware.

 

[Crusty]

Thanks for the info, WildEagle.

About the drivers . . . is there an auto-update/search function upon installation to get the latest for the 64 bit system? Or wouldn't you trust that to get the right drivers?

Either way, I'll do as sugested and get the right ones prior to the big moment.

 

[z3r010]

As you have a new x38 mobo, I think you will find all the x64 drivers on the disk that came with it.

 

[Crusty]

Excellent! That's one less to search for. Thanks for the info, Zero.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,

As well as the excellent advice given above, check your motherboard manufacturer's website for any new and updated x64 drivers. These may solve any bugs you may find in the versions as supplied on the CD with your board. I suggest that you download and burn these to a CD/DVD so that you have them readily available.
Dwarf

http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572

 

[Crusty]

Thanks, Dwarf! I didn't have a chance to start the huge processlast night, but hopefully will get to it today. I'm dreading all of the program installations and their accompanying down loaded updates.

 

[WildEagle]

If you want the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard, here's the Intel page to download them from.

Download Search Results

Note there is a zip file with them in, and a self extracting EXE on the Intel page.

 

[Crusty]

Right, today's the big day! I've got the time this evening to devote to this project. All of my important files have been saved onto discs and I think I have the courage to proceed (I've never done anything like this before!).

Just one quick question about formatting the hard drives in order to ensure a clean install: is this something that I have to do in the ":/C" area, or is this process done automatically during the installation of Vista? I seem to recall that Vista prompts the user about formatting the hard drives during installation, but I am not too sure.

Once again, any tips or advice about formatting the drives before the great installation would be much appreciated.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,

Although this task sounds daunting, it should be fairly straight forward. I have been installing operating systems on my machine (and its predecessors) since the days of Windows 98SE, and I have had no problems. Any problems that you may have will more than likely be caused by dust or fingerprints on the DVD preventing it from being read properly. This can be solved by gentle cleaning of the media using the same equipment that you use to clean ordinary audio CDs.
As to your question about formatting - this is done during installation. For information, please refer to these tutorials. I have also included a link to a tutorial about activating Vista should you have trouble doing so. I advise that you don't activate immediately, but make use of the grace period to ensure that everything is working as it should. It is also possible that you may need to install with just 2GB of RAM installed, but that depends on your motherboard.
Good luck with the installation, and keep us posted on your progress. Your experiences will help others who are thinking of doing the same.
Dwarf

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/68767-clean-install-upgrade-vista.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/84488-activate-vista-phone.html

 

[Crusty]

Thanks, Dwarf! Will keep you all posted!

Here goes nuthin'!

 

[Crusty]

Hmm . . have run into a bit of a snag here. Of the two installation discs, one being for 32 bit and the other for 64, I am assuming I begin the process by booting form the 64 bit? When I do, the system just seems to get hung up after it asks for the language and nothing much happens after that. I seem to recall that when I built the machine using the 32 bit the installation process fairly flew by.

Any tips, hints or suggestions?

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,

The 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Vista are entirely separate and come on individual DVDs, so you will need to boot your system using the 64-bit version. As for your system appearing to hang after asking for the language, it might be nothing more than your DVD needing cleaning. I had this issue a few times with XP - it would get to around 95% or so of extracting files and would then hang. A disk clean solved the problem. I'm afraid that I cannot help you any further with this as I haven't actually installed a 64-bit system, although my system is capable of running 64-bit I currently only have a 32-bit version of Vista installed. If you are still having problems, please post back and hopefully someone who has experience of installing a 64-bit version of Vista will reply and give you further assistance. Best of luck.
Dwarf

 

[Crusty]

Hello, again.

The 64 bit version just doesn't want to get going. After looking at the installation sequence you posted earlier, my machine doesn't seem to want to follow that process.

There is no first message asking about installing 64 bit. I get a DOS prompt asking if I want to boot from disc, then it goes into what would seem like a normal load up screen with the green dots flowing from left to right in the little sausage-like window. After that it hangs up, or goes on to ask about the language and then hangs up.

It seems that the old system just doesn't want to let go. Isn't there some way that I can totally nuuke the drives before starting installation and therefore really start with a clean disc?

Any advice appreciated. Me and computers . . (heavy sigh)

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,
Sorry to hear that you are still having problems. As mentioned in my last post, I don't as yet have any experience with 64-bit systems. However, the installation process is pretty much the same between all versions. The DOS prompt you are getting - is it this one 'Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.._' (or similar)? If it is, are you pressing any key to continue or are you letting it carry on? If you are letting it carry on, which is what it appears that you are doing from reading your last post, then you will actually boot into your original 32-bit version of Vista where, if you have autorun enabled, your 64-bit DVD will start. Because the 32-bit drivers and 64-bit drivers are incompatible with each other, this will cause your system to hang shortly after this point, either before the language screen or just afterwards. A 64-bit system must be CLEAN installed from outside of a 32-bit environment and vice-versa. That means that they must be installed directly off the disk by booting from the disk and not through Windows itself, which it appears you are doing. Try again, and make sure that you press any key when prompted by the DOS prompt, which, incidentally, comes from your BIOS (I usually press the 'spacebar' at this point). Speaking of your BIOS, check the boot order settings. You will need to refer to the motherboard manual for this. I recommend that you set them in this order: 1st, Floppy (if available) 2nd, Optical Drive (CD/DVD) 3rd Hard Drive 4th Other/Disabled. Set all other settings to their default. If you have set your hard drives as RAID, do you have the 64-bit RAID drivers available to install during the installation process? It is possible that, although the drivers may well be on the Vista DVD that for some reason they do not load properly from there (this might well have been corrected with the SP1 versions), so you will need to provide them separately. As a check, try to see if you can install on just a normal, non-RAID, disk. As for nuking the drive(s), at the appropriate point during setup (see the illustration under point 12 of the tutorial 'Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista'), follow these instructions taken from 'Windows Vista Inside Out', p29:
"Delete an existing partition. Select a partition and then click Delete. This option is useful if you want to do a clean install on a drive that currently contains an earlier version of Windows. Because this operation deletes data irretrievably, you must respond to at least two “Are you sure?” confirmation requests. After deleting the partition, you can create a new one and select it as the destination for your Windows Vista installation. Be sure to back up any data files before choosing this
option."
You can then continue from where you left off in the tutorial. Good luck, and if you have any more problems don't hesitate to post back and ask for assistance. We are only too happy to help.
Dwarf

 

[Crusty]

Thanks again, Dwarf. I didn't have time to get to this as the week became very busy. Now that the weekend is here I can get on with the job. Your useful advice will come in handy.

Much appreciated!

 

[Crusty]

Hello again and thanks for all of your guidance. I have managed to get the 64 bit operating system up and running, however there were some hassles.

Firstly, I discovered that if I hit the space bar when prompted to hit any key to continue that the installation too off in the right direction. Secondly, I had to be very patient while letting the installation go through its motions. There were times when it would simply do nothing for a few minutes as the drives spun about, but eventually it got on with what it was supposed to do. Thirdly, the bugger would only install with 2 gigs of ram. When I tried installing with 4 gigs the system hung up and crashed during installation - everytime!

This brings me back to the original idea for wanting to upgrade to the 64 bit system, which was my desire to run 4 gigs of ram on my machine. When I tried running programs with the 4 gigs installled the system kept hanging up and crashing. I have not stuck in the 4 gig today, as I wanted to get the sytem updated and stabile.

What could be causing these RAM problems (if it is a RAM problem?) and what should I be looking out for as way to correct it?

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,

There have been plenty of reports that Vista 64-bit is unable to install with more than 2GB of RAM, although I am not sure why that is. As regards running with 4GB once you have got Vista installed, that shouldn't be a problem. It could be a timing issue - on some motherboards if all the RAM slots are occupied then the maximum memory speed is reduced - for example, from 200MHz to 166MHz. Check the settings for your RAM (use CPUID to obtain the figures) and set these up in your BIOS. It could be that the BIOS is using the wrong set of timing figures for your RAM, so you should set these up manually. Follow your motherboard manual for details. Here is a link to CPUID. You will also find links here to Memtest86+. With Memtest86+ you can create bootable media that can be used to test your memory independant of any operating system.
Dwarf

CPUID

 

[Crusty]

Hmm . . using the CPUID program, I have discovered that the RAM freq is running at 533. Correct me if I am wrong, but since my ram is 1066 shouldn't that be the proper speed?

Anyway, I went into the bios at start up and checked the ram freq section, which was set to auto. I then moved it down to 1066, saved and started up. I ran the CPUID again and the RAM freq is still at 533.

Is my mobo just being conservative with the speed until i use a really demanding application like COD4?

Hmm . .

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Crusty,

I only mentioned the above as a similar thing is mentioned in the manual for my motherboard. You might like to check the forum at ASUS to see if that can help you, but if you want to post a question you will need to join.
Dwarf

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