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Old 05-04-2012, 04:05 AM   #1
tim146
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Default Need some advice switching to Windows 7

Hey guys,

My computer specs are below. I have a couple questions about switching from 32 bit XP to 64 bit Win7:

1. Should I move everything from my Cmain) drive to a different drive and format,Install W7, then move everything back? Will everything still work?

2. Do I have to do a clean install or can I just upgrade over XP?

3. Will my paid plugins like EZdrummer think it's a different computer if I move from drive to drive?

4. Do I gain a lot by making the switch?

5. I purchased Reaper 32 bit, so If I go to 64 bit will my first purchase be voided?

6. Do I need to purchase the full version of W7 or just the upgrade?

I already have upgraded to 4g of ram but XP only recognizes 3g (which is already a known issue).

Any advice on going through with this would be awesome. I have W7 on my regular pc and I really love it and it seems that Reaper would run great on it. I just need the proper steps to go through without losing anything important.

Thanks

My original specs:

AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ Dual Core
2GB DDR400 4 x 512MB
ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB Dual VGA
NEC 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW
----
80GB EIDE (Primary Drive)
Windows XP Home
----
80GB SATA II (Audio Drive)
80GB SATA II (Sample Drive)
----
Standard Operation 450
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Old 05-04-2012, 04:18 AM   #2
DarkStar
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Hello tim146 and welcome to these forums. You'll find many helpful people here and a lot of useful information.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
1. Should I move everything from my C: (main) drive to a different drive and format, Install W7, then move everything back? Will everything still work?
I would certainly back up everything before you start. A clean W7 install will be less problematic than any upgrade. Have you got all the 64-bit drivers for your devices, as you will need them too? HAve you done an OS install before?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
2. Do I have to do a clean install or can I just upgrade over XP?
I would do a clean install.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
3. Will my paid plugins like EZdrummer think it's a different computer if I move from drive to drive?
Not necessarily from drive to drive, but certainly from OS to OS. You will need to reinstall / reauthorize them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
4. Do I gain a lot by making the switch?
A Supported OS, with updates, more memory for sample libraries, ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
5. I purchased Reaper 32 bit, so If I go to 64 bit will my first purchase be voided?
Nope

Quote:
Originally Posted by tim146 View Post
6. Do I need to purchase the full version of W7 or just the upgrade?
Not sure, doesn't the upgrade disk include a full install?

HTH
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Old 05-04-2012, 05:51 AM   #3
simpsongb
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1. Should I move everything from my Cmain) drive to a different drive and format,Install W7, then move everything back? Will everything still work?

2. Do I have to do a clean install or can I just upgrade over XP?

3. Will my paid plugins like EZdrummer think it's a different computer if I move from drive to drive?

4. Do I gain a lot by making the switch?

5. I purchased Reaper 32 bit, so If I go to 64 bit will my first purchase be voided?

6. Do I need to purchase the full version of W7 or just the upgrade?

Here are some thoughts. First to address 4 - you gain better driver support, since XP is really old and nobody is making drivers for XP anymore. You also gain access to all 4 Gb of RAM, which, depending on your session complexity could be very beneficial. Note that a hard drive with faster RPMs would be good also.

As far as upgrade vs new installation, I ALWAYS go new install. FWIW, I am a Microsoft consultant, and I never suggest people upgrade. Bad news is that the upgrade DVD does not contain a full new install version. There is about an $80 difference between the full and upgrade versions of Windows 7.

The last thing is older purchased plugins. Most of the time, they will install and accept the license key fine. Occasionally you may need to directly contact the company and let them know you are reinstalling. They should help.

Oh....I always suggest that you partititon your hard drive into two drives. Make the C drive, where you are going to install WIndows 7, 80 Gb. Use the rest for data. Onlyt put programs on C, and data on D. Then the next time you reinstall or install a new OS, you just leave D alone and install on the C partition. Data is untouched.
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Old 05-04-2012, 06:18 AM   #4
danfuerth
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What do you mean 4 gig limit?
My Windows xp sees all my 16 gigs of ram, only the apps are stuck at 2 gig instances due to the applications no supporting PAE.
Why does Microsoft limit the amount of ram licencing on the desktops? there are 2 different ram amounts on the windows 7 home editions vs the pro and both are 64 bit, GOT YA!! ya buy the server for more ram support, sleazy..
Even today there are still issues with 64 bit drivers!!!

So I run both XP and Windows 7 dual booted why only use one foot when you have 2?

Patch your windows XP with the windows 2003 SERVER ads PAE kernel. For the Microsoft rep, you did know that Microsoft Windows 2003 32 bit Server can use up to 128 gigs of ram with PAE right??

Google for the kernel patches there is even one for windows 7 32 bit


Remember to use only 64 bit apps in a 64 bit OS, if you run 32 then you will loose massively running them on a 64 bit OS, and you do not need to be any microsoft person to see that and understand that.

If we all had 64 bit apps, all 64 bit vst's, all 64 bti Vsti's then okay Windows 7 all the day, but as it is right now I have to give up a lot of excellent plugins and tools just to run more ram? As that was a false point in going to 64 bit, has nothing to do with ram limits. It's the applications that gain the most (as long as they are 64 bit ) NOT THE OS!!

My suggestion is very simple, have a dual boot system.
This saves you not only time but headaches. And this also let's you play around with some tricks, like adding a vst directory from your XP to your 64 bit os running Reaper 64 bit .

Put them on 2 different drives ( if only 1 then you have to back up your stuff off the system,. format and partition the drive into 2 sections..drives)

For reasons of piracy control and other nonsense most plugins will not work due to the missing registry entries, so this may involve installing everything from scratch and I suggest having both, this way you can then move some VST dll's over to see which ones work and don't

Read...

1.Xp- install this first
2.Windows 7 ( will then add xp boot.ini entries into it's boot loader)
install windows 7 second

if all works okay...Now install your applications

My Current system

Amd FX 8 Core -black edition
16 gigs of ram
16 gig ram drive (ANS-9010)
Windows XP- PAE patched ( 2 gig soft ram drive) - Virtual Mem DISABLED
Windows 7 64 bit ( 2 gig soft ram drive) VIRTUAL MEMORY DISABLED

Virtual Memory is not needed with 16 gigs of ram or even 2 gigs of ram, Users should be smart enough to know how to use task manager to see what is loaded and and memory usages are going through the system.
Virtual Memory was great in the DOS DAYS!!!.

Last edited by danfuerth; 05-04-2012 at 06:55 AM.
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Old 05-04-2012, 03:00 PM   #5
tim146
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Thanks! I'll have to weigh my options here..............
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