Easy transition?

[failurbydesign]

My buddy is running Vista 32bit, but its showing 4gb of ram...weird. Anyways since he cant do an upgrade to W7 64bit, he wants a fresh install, though has all his info, games, and accounts. How well does the vista backup work to transfer to windows 7???

 

[Not Bman]

Depends, if you use the Vista backup and backup files and folders, should be as easy as copying a file to another place. I think it may be quite different if you backup as a full image of the drive.

I think this kinda explains how to backup from an image created from Vista Backup Utility if need be. Kinda complicated though.

http://blog.frankovic.net/2009/02/restore-data-from-vista-full-computer-backup-to-windows-7/

 

[DwarfData]

My buddy is running Vista 32bit, but its showing 4gb of ram...weird. Anyways since he cant do an upgrade to W7 64bit, he wants a fresh install, though has all his info, games, and accounts. How well does the vista backup work to transfer to windows 7???

There was a patch (or even SP1) that ensured Vista showed the correct amount of RAM installed in your machine. However, as you're undoubtedly aware, Vista 32bit would only address approx 3gb

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

You can transfer your personal data any way you like and use Windows 7's Easy Transfer Wizard to transfer your settings. Note that you can use transfer wizards to go from 32 to 64-bit, but not the other way around.

Windows 7's Easy Transfer is much better than in Vista and XP.

 

[Not Bman]

You can transfer your personal data any way you like and use Windows 7's Easy Transfer Wizard to transfer your settings. Note that you can use transfer wizards to go from 32 to 64-bit, but not the other way around.

Windows 7's Easy Transfer is much better than in Vista and XP.

Yea but he is going from Vista to 7, not 7 to Vista. So he can't use that.

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

Yes you can. You use the new Windows version's transfer wizard to gather your settings from your old installation. You can't go the other way around, from 7 to Vista. This is what it's designed for, not just to go from one 7 installation to another.

 

[failurbydesign]

Not sure what he will do, just curious why his 32bit install shows all 4gb of ram..

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

Not sure what he will do, just curious why his 32bit install shows all 4gb of ram..

I knew the answer to this as well, but DwarfData beat me to it.

There was a patch (or even SP1) that ensured Vista showed the correct amount of RAM installed in your machine. However, as you're undoubtedly aware, Vista 32bit would only address approx 3gb

It's the same in Windows 7 32-bit. It tells you the correct amount you have installed. Not sure in Vista 32-bit but in 7 32-bit it then says in parentheses how much is useable (depends on various factors including how much RAM your video card has).

 

[failurbydesign]

Now the plot thickens....Vista claims to be 32bit, but information provided with the computer says Windows Vista 64bit is installed? There are no dvd/cd's just a recovery partition...thoughts? Can up upgrade windows 7 32 to windows 7 64?

 

[kcnychief]

You cannot upgrade a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS.

Best way to clear up the confusion is to go to bring up a run bux (Windows Key + R) and type in "winver" and hit ENTER (no quotes).

Although based on your original screenshot, I'd say it's safe to say it's 32-bit.