questions about windows 32 vs 64bit

[johnnq1]

after 3 months of procrastinating, i'm finally going to rma my hard drive. (by the way, do i lose it entirely if i don't package it exactly the way they want me to?) i've been using 32 bit windows because i like playing old windows 95 and 98 games. see my sig for my system. should i finally upgrade to 64? back when i first got it (bought the 32 and the 64 was included for free!!!), 64 was very very buggy and i didn't want to deal with it. i've been a little out of the loop with computer stuff in general, which is why i'm asking here. should i finally install the 64 bit version? will some games be noticeably faster? will not being able to play some of my old games be worth it? i have ghost (which i'm actually trying to sell). should partition the disk and install both versions??


question 2: assuming that i'm going to keep ghost. does this make sense? i'll make a 20-25 gb partition for windows. i'll ghost that to the other partition. this way, whenever i want, i can just wipe everything and ghost a fresh installation of windows. the problems i see: time. how long would it take? documents and settings. i'm not going through all that crap to change c documents and settings to d documents and settings. could i make the small partition my original install and ghost it over to c with no problems?


question 3: where are there easy overclocking guides? i'm still running strong with my athlon 64 at 2.0. the little engine that can! are dual core 939s cheap enough to buy now? i'd rather not spend more than 100-125 bucks.

any help is appreciated!!

 

[Nothinman]

Search the forums, people ask this same question every day.

In general, most games won't be any faster, at least not by an appreciable amount. As long as the Win9x games are 32-bit there's still a chance they'll work, the only thing guaranteed not to run in Win64 is 16-bit apps. Drivers will be the main issue, you can only use 64-bit drivers in a 64-bit kernel and you don't say whether you mean XP64 or Vista64 and driver issues will be different between the two.

As long as you have a DOS version of Ghost or are running Ghost32 in a WinPE environment that'll be fine. If you have one of those crap versions that only run in Windows I think you're screwed because I don't think they run in Win64. Frankly I think partitioning a drive is largely pointless, get yourself a second physical disk and use that for your backups.

 

[johnnq1]

ok thanks for the answer. and i have ghost 2007...

so there is no real advantage to install xp 64 besides a few frames in few games?

the reason i wanted to partition was due to the ease of using ghost (versus installed windows AGAIN...and AGAIN). in the end, buying another hard drive would be the easiest route? should i look for a very cheap, small hd and use that as the clean windows drive? (i see your 18k posts but i'm pretty sure you know. even after i partition the hard drive, i can repartition or destroy any partition of my choosing with ghost)

 

[Nothinman]

so there is no real advantage to install xp 64 besides a few frames in few games?

That's not even a real advantage, since just about all of your games are closed source and 32-bit they'll be exactly the same unless something in the OS is a bit faster like say the video drivers or some part of DirectX or OpenGL. The primary advantage of running a 64-bit process is the ability to address >2G of VM, technically the real limit is 4G but 2G is reserved for the kernel in NT. Some games, like SupCom, can hit that ceiling on large maps with lots of units (if you can get the POS to run long enough, that is) but that's still fairly rare. The extra GPRs can give a bit of a performance boost too but nothing huge.

the reason i wanted to partition was due to the ease of using ghost (versus installed windows AGAIN...and AGAIN).

And while true, it's still much better and safer to just get a second physical disk and use that. One typo or mis-click and you can lose both partitions pretty easily and that's not even considering if the drive dies on it's own.

should i look for a very cheap, small hd and use that as the clean windows drive?

I don't use Windows any more so I have no clue how much disk space it likes these days, but with the current prices of drives I couldn't imagine getting anything smaller than 100G. Even an OEM 150G raptor is only ~$200.

(i see your 18k posts but i'm pretty sure you know. even after i partition the hard drive, i can repartition or destroy any partition of my choosing with ghost)

With 'destroy' being the operative word. =)

 

[johnnq1]

well my hd is a 250 gb seagate 7200.8. i was thinking about getting something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144173

just something to hold windows (yes ok maybe if i spend 20 bucks more i could get twice the space. that's irrelevant) do i even need ghost to copy one hard drive to the other? sorry i'm quite new to these things...computers suck!

 

[Nothinman]

well my hd is a 250 gb seagate 7200.8. i was thinking about getting something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144173

Well 40G will easily hold just Windows, but since you're talking about gaming and lots of games are in the multi-gig sizes these days it probably won't take installing many games to fill it up.

do i even need ghost to copy one hard drive to the other? sorry i'm quite new to these things...computers suck!

Ghost (or something like it) will make it a lot easier, but yes it is possible to do it manually if you really wanted to do so.

 

[johnnq1]

no games on the installation. i would want it clean and fresh, with windows, drivers, and java/etc. simple simple. could you give me a link showing me how to copy one hd to the other, pretty please?

 

[Nothinman]

no games on the installation.

That's absolutely pointless.

could you give me a link showing me how to copy one hd to the other, pretty please?

I don't know of any and I really doubt you'll want to go through the hassle. You can't do it inside of Windows so you'd need to build custom boot CD and restoring things like the MBR would be a pain. If you don't want to use Ghost you could get something like a PartImage LiveCD, that should work too.

 

[johnnq1]

why would it be pointless? installing games takes like 10 minutes each. a few minutes for each game is very different from the number of hours it takes for windows to install. not to mention the giant hd i would need to fit EVERY game.

 

[Pwnbroker]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you use Ghost, won't the entire directory be saved, including any games installed? Then all you need to do is reinstall your os from Ghost and no games to install.

 

[johnnq1]

i don't know. i just want to have a fresh version of windows that i can keep clean of viruses. this way, whenever i REALLY want to open something shady, i can always keep in mind that i have a fresh version of windows..... grr why couldn't microsoft make windows better in the first place! we wouldn't have to spend so much money...but microsoft knows this...the struggle continues

 

[m21s]

Originally posted by: johnnq1
why would it be pointless? installing games takes like 10 minutes each. a few minutes for each game is very different from the number of hours it takes for windows to install. not to mention the giant hd i would need to fit EVERY game.

:roll:

 

[Nothinman]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you use Ghost, won't the entire directory be saved, including any games installed? Then all you need to do is reinstall your os from Ghost and no games to install.

Yes, although imaging tools like Ghost do whole filesystems and not directories. But I think his point is that he doesn't want the image being the size of the OS+games, which is a valid concern although I'd probably just make one image at the beginning before I install anything and go back to that when things get too bad.

i don't know. i just want to have a fresh version of windows that i can keep clean of viruses. this way, whenever i REALLY want to open something shady, i can always keep in mind that i have a fresh version of windows..... grr why couldn't microsoft make windows better in the first place! we wouldn't have to spend so much money...but microsoft knows this...the struggle continues

You know that what you want to open is shady and yet it's still MS' fault that you can't open it without possible consequences?

 

[johnnq1]

i meant something more along the lines of: if microsoft was more like apple, there would be fewer threats.

But I think his point is that he doesn't want the image being the size of the OS+games, which is a valid concern although I'd probably just make one image at the beginning before I install anything and go back to that when things get too bad.

yes, that's exactly what i want to do. is this plausible? i think i'm finally going to go through with it. anything i should be concerned about??

 

[mechBgon]

Have you considered using the built-in Backup in Vista, after getting your baseline Windows installation dialed? It can do full system images, and they can be saved onto DVDs (including multiple DVDs) or an extra HDD, so you could re-image if you needed to.

backup in Vista :camera: (edit: this isn't available in Vista Home versions, just Ultimate, Business and Enterprise)

 

[Nothinman]

i meant something more along the lines of: if microsoft was more like apple, there would be fewer threats.

You mean you want MS to ignore people who point out issues with their software and then not even acknowledge them or the fact that they fixed that particular issue when they finally do issue a patch?

 

[johnnq1]

i had no idea that existed! how do i find this feature??

 

[Nothinman]

The feature where Apple fixes things without telling you or giving credit to those that actually found the bug? Install OS X and it's right there, since it and the patches are closed source you have absolutely no idea what any of the patches really do to your system.

 

[johnnq1]

"Have you considered using the built-in Backup in Vista, after getting your baseline Windows installation dialed? It can do full system images, and they can be saved onto DVDs (including multiple DVDs) or an extra HDD, so you could re-image if you needed to."

wait i don't have vista...does xp have this?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: johnnq1
"Have you considered using the built-in Backup in Vista, after getting your baseline Windows installation dialed? It can do full system images, and they can be saved onto DVDs (including multiple DVDs) or an extra HDD, so you could re-image if you needed to."

wait i don't have vista...does xp have this?

From the 32-bit-versus-64-bit question, I thought you were getting Vista. XP Pro has the Automated System Recovery option, however.

Also, I should mention that Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium do not have image-based backup/recovery. Only Ultimate and Business (and Enterprise) have it.

 

[johnnq1]

ugh. so back to square 1. i have both 32 bit and 64 bit windows versions. i'd like to somehow create a (for the most part) completely updated and virus free bare install of just windows, norton, java, flash, etc, NO GAMES. this way, i can just start over fresh whenever i'd like. what would be the best way to do this??

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: johnnq1
ugh. so back to square 1. i have both 32 bit and 64 bit windows versions. i'd like to somehow create a (for the most part) completely updated and virus free bare install of just windows, norton, java, flash, etc, NO GAMES. this way, i can just start over fresh whenever i'd like. what would be the best way to do this??

1) what exact version of 32-bit Windows do you have? XP Pro? XP Home? Vista (if so, which version)?

2) what exact version of 64-bit Windows do you have? WinXP Pro x64 Edition, Vista (if so, which version of Vista)?

 

[Nothinman]

ugh. so back to square 1. i have both 32 bit and 64 bit windows versions. i'd like to somehow create a (for the most part) completely updated and virus free bare install of just windows, norton, java, flash, etc, NO GAMES. this way, i can just start over fresh whenever i'd like. what would be the best way to do this??

Install all of your OS, drivers, updates, java crap, norton crap, etc and then ghost it.

 

[johnnq1]

both xp pro. thanks for the replies by the way. so i should go with my original plan? make a 15-25 gb partition and install windows there, then ghost that on to the rest of the drive? the only problem i see is the whole c documents and settings problem. changing that to d documents and settings is just ridiculous and confusing...maybe i should just search for a cheapie 20 gb hard drive for sale somewhere...

 

[johnnq1]

any help?