Running Vista64: Upgrade to win7:64 since I am upgrading hardrives?

Need to upgrade a few of my drives. Running out of space.

Been running Vista64 for a year. Honestly, I can't remember this system ever locking up. I don't have any issues with Vista64 at the moment. However, I have a chance to get the student discount before I am no longer considered an active student.

Do i shell out the $30 for the upgrade or stay with vista? I'm fine with vista for now but would hate to have to buy it retail cost later if I wanna take advantage of the newest DX or some other feature.

I would take advantage of it while you can. I would not upgrade however but install Win 7 as new.

Before you jump, check to see what version of Win 7 you need to upgrade to. I have Vista Ultimate 32 bit and the only option is to go to the Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit. Otherwise I would have to start over with a 64 bit system. That would be a lot of work, but I ain't skeered.

I am giving it a lot of thought. Fry's had a OEM Win 7 Professional 64 bit for $79. That's seems like a pretty good price for me.

i am running vista64. I can get the win7 64 professional for the 29.99 cost.

The question is, since I have to upgrade my main OS drive to something larger thus requiring a reinstall anyways, do i shell out the $30 bucks ($44 if i want windows to send me discs as well)?

Like i said, on the build I am currently running (built an i7 rig when the 920's were just released) vista seems to run pretty nicely. No crashes, never had a BSOD, etc etc. Only issue is my on board sound card sometimes stops working after a few days of the computer sleeping, waking, sleeping waking, etc.

It's not really a question of money, but merely, do i wanna waste beer money on an operating system that may be a stability downgrade vs keeping whats not broken.

However, the human race is always stuck worrying about future compatibility.


Ofcourse it would have to be a clean install and not an upgrade of my current install, since my OS drive is maxed out (36gig rapter). The install has crept from like 26 gigs to 32gigs in just updates over the last year.

A goodly portion of the world is now running Win-7 - - - because it turned out to be a very good OS.

I had Vista 32, it came installed on my laptop. Early this year I doubled my RAM, bought CS5, and upgraded to Win 7 64 (clean install). All on a student discount

I never had a problem with Vista and I actually liked it a lot (hated XP). But the upgrade is totally worth it! Win 7 just "feels" lighter. Stuff works better and faster.

For $30 definitely, do it.

Here's the official upgrade chart:

http://mossblog.allthi​ngsd.com …windows-upgrade-chart.png

Just because you're increasing the size of your drives, you don't need to upgrade the OS.
You can use cloning software to copy everything over (as long as the drive is less than 2.2 TB).
But, if you can get Win7 64 bit for $30, I'd do it.
It's a much better OS.
I just upgraded from 32 to 64-bit with a new system build, and it's a PIA reinstalling everything, but it's worth it.
Just remember to image the system after you have everything set up the way you like.

don't just reinstall 32bit apps on the 64bit OS unless there are no 64bit versions. Install the 64bit versions such as for MS Office, LR, PS...etc.

When I got my new hard drive (and processor, memory, and video card), I upgraded from Vista 32 to Windows 7 64 bit. It took a "custom install" but it wasn't all that bad of a process. Go to Microsoft's web site and find/download a program called "Windows Easy Transfer" to copy and save all of your critical information so that it can be used by Windows 7. Also, check out the MS upgrade advisor and make sure that your computer is compatible (it probably is).

My upgrade went seamlessly, which surprised me. The hardest part was reinstalling all the stuff that I had on the Vista machine. I reformatted the old C drive and I am using it as a mirror of my D Drive. Sort of a manual RAID-1 setup. They're identical drives. The new drive is much larger. I'm not sure that I will ever fill it (when have I said THAT before???).

Oh, PS runs much quicker on the 64 bit machine. Granted, I doubled my memory and added some processor speed as well. I know that it likes the memory upgrade!

For 30 bucks, it's definitely worth it. Win 7 is more speedy and stable than Vista. I upgraded from XP, but I've also used Vista on other machines. I've been a Microsoft basher for many years over numerous issues, but Windows 7 is one of the things that they did right. It's the best OS I've ever used by them.