Noob/Idiot Question: Will upgrading to Vista U64 Wipe my entire drive?

[angry hampster]

I'm almost positive that it will, but before I start backing up for my Vista Ultimate 64 isntall tomorrow, I want to ask if installing vista on my current hard drive will wipe all of my data (documents, games, programs, etc) from my hard drive, causing me to reinstall all of them. Not too big of a deal if so, just a bit of a pain.

I'm currently running XP Pro SP2.

Also, what are the advantages of 64 bit over 32 bit? ...besides being able to see more than 3GB of RAM.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

No, it will not "wipe all of your data" but, you will need new drivers for everything. The main advantage currently to going 64 bit is in using applications which do heavy number/data base crunching.

 

[Cogman]

Using a vista upgrade, it wont wipe all your data. But, Any sane computer maintainer WILL remove everything and do a fresh install. It is always a bad idea to try and install one OS on top of another.

 

[Cutthroat]

You are going from 32bit to 64bit, you cannot upgrade to 64bit, you must install from scratch. Make sure you back up anything you want to keep, the drive you install on will be formatted.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
You are going from 32bit to 64bit, you cannot upgrade to 64bit, you must install from scratch. Make sure you back up anything you want to keep, the drive you install on will be formatted.

Sounds good

I've got too much crap on here anyway.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat
You are going from 32bit to 64bit, you cannot upgrade to 64bit, you must install from scratch. Make sure you back up anything you want to keep, the drive you install on will be formatted.

That's correct. A clean install is the only way to go with 64-bit Vista. So either back everything up and format the XP partition and install Vista over it, or create a new partition for Vista if you want to keep XP as well.

 

[nerp]

A clean install after a few years is a bit of a catharsis. Enjoy it like you enjoy opening the windows and dusting on an early, crisp spring day. Fresh installs are always nice.