win xp 64

[carlangas]

Hi, sorry if this is in the wrong forum..

I just got the windows xp64 upgrade for my machine, its a dual opteron 270 running xp32 pro. well I tried installing it and in the setup screen says it recomends to partition my drive because having two operating systems in the same partition could cause problems.

can anyone talk me through the intallation proccess? I have all my files on a second hard drive, the first drive is where xp32 is installed, also none of the drives are partitioned. does upgrading to xp64 errase all my files in the drive? has anyone done this upgrade?

any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

thanks a lot.

[Dynedain]

XP 64bit cannot be installed as an upgrade to XP 32bit... It requires a full installation. You can do this side-by-side with XP 32bit, but it's not pretty.

[carlangas]

thanks for the quick reply. what do you suggest I do? I dont recall the setup screen giving me the option to just install windows. it just gave me the partition option.

-EDIT-

ok, Ive looked up some info and I looks like I need a fresh install and it will wipeout all my files on the system drive. my current scenario is: have two hard drives, none are partitioned. in one drive i have the operating system and in the other all my personal files and all my programs including max. what happens if I do a fresh intall? do I need to uninstall all my programs prior to intalling xp64?

[DaForce]

yes.. ALL programs will need to be reinstalled. Due to registry entrys, system files..etc..etc..

Not to mention, ideally you would be installing the 64bit max and 64bit vray to get the biggest advantage out of 64bit xp

[carlangas]

arhhh!!
I thought this was going to be a simple upgrade...
thanks for your help guys.

[carlangas]

I have made the swith to x64. one question though, when I boot the bios start up screen only reads up to 2.92 gb of ram. I have 4 gb and I know they're read because I used cpuz to check. so how do I fix my bios so that all 4gb are read?

thanks,

[jacksc02]

you might have to update your bios

[carlangas]

is updating the same as flashing? sorry for the dumb question, just want to get it right and maybe even learn something.

[DaForce]

yep same thing.

The manufacturers website should have details on how to do it.

[neoVisual]

Bios update doesn't always help. I guess you must go to BIOS settings and under Northbridge configuration turn Memory Remap Feature On. This is cause of most Asus boards when enabling memory over 3GB.

I had to switch this on all boards with 4GB memory.

neoVISUAL

[carlangas]

I dont have this memory remap setting but I did change the software memory hole setting to ENABLED and it worked. I didnt update my bios, ive read that if youre not having problems you shouldnt mess with it.
thanks for the info

[EricCamper]

Sorry to hijack...lol....But is Viz 64 bit ready or whatever....We are getting some new computers and I want to be sure I am doing the best thing