upgrading from xp pro 32-bit to xp pro 64 bit

[Guest]

all

i am wondering how easy it is to upgrade from windows xp 32 bit to windows
xp 64 bit? i have a lot of data on my workstation (computational) and would
like to have a hassle free upgrade. my FEA software will probably run faster
on 64 bit workstation than a 32 bit. hence thinking of the upgrade. please
advice if there are any online websites/blogs that talk about 32 to 64
upgrade.

thanks,
mahesh

 

[David B.]

There is no upgrade path, you have to format and fresh install.

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[DL]

A lot of data? obviously backed up?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

i am wondering how easy it is to upgrade from windows xp 32 bit to
windows xp 64 bit?

Not easy at all. In fact it's impossible. Only a clean installation is
supported.

i have a lot of data on my workstation
(computational) and would like to have a hassle free upgrade. my FEA
software will probably run faster on 64 bit workstation than a 32
bit.

I don't know what FEA software is, but are you sure? Is there a 64-bit
version of it? If you run 32-bit software on a 64-bit version of Windows,
there is normally *no* improvement in speed.

Also note that there are often issues getting appropriate drivers for all
your hardware for 64-bit Windows. Don't do this unless you are sure the
drivers are available.

 

[Guest]

I backup the data about every 3 weeks. Will do it again in a week or so -
then try to do a fresh install then. Good thing is I have OS/Programs hard
disk, and then have 2 individual SATA disks for data. So in any case I can go
a fresh install right now with a format and not worry about my data. But if
scheduled backup is coming soon, then it makes sense to do it then.

Am on a dual processor (each 2 cores) opteron workstation, and running
version 10 Ansys on it. I think this setup will benefit from 64 bit over 32
bit. Along with this upgrade I plan to increase the system memory from 4GB to
16 GB too.

Thanks for all the help.

Mahesh

 

[DanS]

Am on a dual processor (each 2 cores) opteron workstation, and running
version 10 Ansys on it. I think this setup will benefit from 64 bit
over 32 bit. Along with this upgrade I plan to increase the system
memory from 4GB to 16 GB too.

Thanks for all the help.

Mahesh

Typically, there will be no speed benefit using a 32 bit program on a 64
bit O/S. The application must be a 64-bit build to see any speed benefit.

On the other hand, adding the memory also may give it a boost.

Have you contacted Ansys and see if 1) they have a 64 bit version,
although the web page says v11 runs a lot faster than v10 in some
modules, or 2) adding the RAM will speed up execution ?

While the price of RAM isn't $80/meg like it was 15 years ago, buying 16G
isn't cheap.

I'd look at the cost/benefit ratio with all the pertinent questions
answered before I made the final decision.

It's not unthinkable that this upgrade would only benefit by a < 5% speed
increase.

 

[Rock]

all

i am wondering how easy it is to upgrade from windows xp 32 bit to windows
xp 64 bit? i have a lot of data on my workstation (computational) and
would
like to have a hassle free upgrade. my FEA software will probably run
faster
on 64 bit workstation than a 32 bit. hence thinking of the upgrade. please
advice if there are any online websites/blogs that talk about 32 to 64
upgrade.

To add to the others' posts, there is an x64 newsgroup.
microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general