Installing 64-Bit Vista OS

Hi

Here's a guide to install any version of Vista 32 or 64 bit

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

Yes you need to download every 64 bit driver you can find before you

start and have them on a CD\DVD , pin drive , SD card or USB backup drive .

You have to format the hard drive to install 64 bit as a clean install only

you can not upgrade to 64 bit from 32 bit ,

You boot to the DVD drive with the Vista DVD in it to start with .

Any other questions you can post them here .

Good Luck 

Hi

Yes you have reinstall everything .

I do not think you will have a driver problem.

When you check for 64 bit drivers check the 32 bit driver

some of them have the 64 bit driver bundled with them.

Click the driver like you or going to download it on the

next page check in compatible mode it will say

what OS the driver will work for. 

 

So is upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit really worth it??

It

was for me Vista 64 bit has been on my D 8400 when Vista

was still beta software .

All 8 of my computers have Vista Ultimate 64 bit now .

With the exception of my D 8400 none of them had XP at all .

If you are asking about gaming i can't answer that for you !

Good Luck

Wow, so I have to back-up EVERYTHING And re-install it all??  Not only that, but if I miss a driver I'm royally jacked??

 

 ... So is upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit really worth it??  I play my machine for performance a lot of times, and would it run any faster??

I installed Vista 64-bit the other day on one of the M1330's and WOW!  EVERYTHING seems to run smoother.  Startup and shutdown times were cut drastically.  ALMOST as fast as XP.  This 64 on a laptop is practically as fast as the desktops I have.  Core temps are cooler because they aren't working as hard.  This will result in longer batter life, no doubt.

 

As was stated, you can download all the 64-bit drivers you need, put then on a portable device and give it a shot.  One idea....hard drives are getting to be a dime a dozen.  You can get a VERY good 250 or 320 GB hard drive for around or under a hundred bucks and experiment on that without having to worry about losing your backup data.

I am very happy with Vista 64.

 

Tom
XPS 420, Q6600, 4GB, 500x2, Radeon HD2600XT, Bluetooth, eSATA, Ultimate SP1
XPS 420, Q6700, 4GB, 750GB x 2 (RAID 0), GeForce 8800 GT, Xcellerator, Bluetooth, eSATA, Ultimate SP1
XPS M1330, 2.2GHz, 4GB, 200GB (7200), SP1
XPS M1330, 2.0GHz, 4GB, 320GB, Vista Ultimate SP1 & XP Pro SP3

Ok thanks!  So here's a checklist pretty much:  Backup HD, find all the 64-Bit drivers I can find and put them on a flash drive, delete EVERYTHING off of my laptop after I back it up, and when I turn it on it will ask me to install my OS I'm guessing?

 

Few questions:

 

1)  When will I be prompted to install the drivers?  Right after I install the OS?

 

2)  After I install the OS and all the drivers, what's the general way to put ALL of my old data (games, program files, music, literally everything) back onto my harddrive?  Just drag into the right folder??  If I use the drag method to put a program into the "program files" folder, will my computer even recognize that I have "installed" that program?  Or is there an alternate way of accomplishing this?

 

The main thing I'm worried about is getting my computer EXACTLY back to how it was - every program, every music, files where their supposed to be... everything (including the stuff that Dell installed).  

If it were only that simple.  Windows may or may not ask you to install certain drivers.  Some, it will find for you.  Others, you'll have to know what to do.  It won't ask you for the Chipset and AHCI SATA hard drive controllers, nor many other things like Bluetooth (if you have a Bluetooth module) and fingerprint reader, webcam, on and on.

Installed programs have to be reinstalled.  You can't just drop them into a different folder.  You will need the original installation disks (and activation key codes if necessery).

This isn't a task that should be taken lightly.  Especially if you have never done it before.  Having said that... after you have done it a couple times it isn't really that difficult.  That's why experimenting on a different hard drive is the safest.  If something goes wrong, you can just start over and nothing is lost.  I guess the gist of this advice is to proceed with caution.  If you do proceed, make sure your backups are correct and can be redeployed.

 

Tom

OK well I appreciate the help.  Any other tips would be great!  It'll probably be a week or two before I install the OS. 

Do not have to delete anything from your system Kaaji...

 

1.  Locate any 64 bit Printer driver from the manufactures web site, burn it to a CD

 

2.  Locate any other add on hardware 64 bit driver and do same as above

 

3.  Make sure your current programs are Vista capable, most are except the really old ones

 

4.  Just install the OS onto the system as shown below and it will wipe out everything

 

Now comes the important part.... Did you get the 64 bit OS with SP-1 included ?  If not, tell us because if you did not you have to do a few dumb things with the current memory ( 4 gigs ) first and download the Microsoft Hotfix in order for the full memory to be addressed.  The 64 bit OS with SP-1 already has this hotfix and you do not have to remove 2 gigs of memory first, install windows, install the hotfix then install the other gigs of memory. 

 

Let us know

 

Clean Install of Vista presentation link

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=370

Yes, the 64Bit OS came with SP1.  

 

So I'm assuming the steps  are still just:

 

1)  Find all 64Bit Driver's and put them on a CD/flash drive.  

 

2)  Back-up all Data on harddrive

 

3)  Install 64Bit OS

 

4)  Put all Drivers on

 

5)  Install all the Data and Programs

 

And then I'm done?

Best to read up on the ChipSet and Video driver first before proceeding. 

I always save and burn my 64 bit drivers and some other programs to a DVD so I will have them ready in the event I have to reformat and reinstall windows. This way you are ahead of the game. I also keep them up to date if new drivers come out. Some never do this but have read from many not knowing what to do or download after a new install of windows.

1. Download any 64 bit drivers from the hardware's manufactures web sit that you attach to the system.

2. Save any programs that you want to transfer to the new OS, such as links to a 64 bit Anti Virus software. I use the free version of Avast 64 bit version. Same for my new printer, etc

3. I normally wipe my hard drive clean with the below hard drive wipe program to get all the old code off. Many will not do this, but what the heck, I do.

Hard drive wipe free version

 

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

4. Then I install Vista 64 bit OS clean

5. Now comes the fun part. Install the ChipSet driver.  The 32 bit ChipSet driver is on the site below, not the 64 bit version if there is one so I hope someone can weigh in on this if it will still work or not.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=XPS_M1530&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

 

Then you install the video card driver.  Another if I'm afraid.  The site above has the 32 bit version and do not know if Microsoft will have a 64 bit version for download when you go to the Download site for those nice long list of updates.  This is the issue with a Dell system ( Specially a notebook ) with any Mobil video card. 

 

Lets find out first before doing anything more and ask those that may have done this about the video card you have installed on that notebook.  Why not post on the laptop board about a 64 bit version of the video card on that 1530 system and ChipSet driver as well. 

 

Laptop board to post those nasty 64 bit driver questions.  http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=Tech_Talk_XPS_Laptop

 

Wait for an answer, then proceed.  Do not want you to mess up for nothing and have to stick with Vista 32 bit.

The chipset driver referred-to is for XP, Vista32 and Vista64 according to the compatability tab.  As for the video driver, I lucked out and Windows Update had one for my nVidia 8400M GS.  Maybe google for whether Microsoft drivers have appeared for your model.  I've used ones from places like laptopvideo2go.com but they usually have to be modded and in one case I remember the modded driver constantly spiking the CPU in XP on one of my M1330s.  I kept checking Dell drivers for "similar" models and tried one for the 1420.  Lo and behold, although the download page listed it as not for an M1330, the .inf file displayed while the files were being extracted did in fact include M1330 in the list.  So, all of the exact drivers are probably out there.  It's just a matter of finding them.

I'm sure it won't be long before Dell has a full slate of 64 bit drivers available for download.

 

Tom

Well as far the Video Driver goes... I install the ones from LaptopVideo2Go.com (I'm using the 177.79 video driver atm - the Dell one is 175.97).  That has to do with the Display drivers... does that include Chipset??

 

BTW: sorry if I seem a bit slow on the subject of installing a new OS.  I'm sure whenever I finally take the leap to do it I'll learn a ton.