XP to Windows 7 - advice?

[Skyline]

I bought my 3XS system exactly two years ago and want to move from XP to Windows 7.
(1) Are there any dos and don'ts for making the move? The only 'do' I'm aware of is to do a complete re-install and not the upgrade. How would I do that, reformat my hard drives or will the Windows 7 installer do all that for me?
(2) Should I install the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows 7?
(3) Will the Acronis backup (that came with the machine) be any use in this process or will it be flummoxed by the move?
(4) It's a PC used for music recording so I'd want to whack up the memory when Windows 7 is in. Any advice on what sticks to buy?

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

John

[bobbyxu1]

1. Yes, I would think clean install would be best. Back up your files to an external hard drive first and then just insert the windows 7 disk when your computer is booting up, select to install on your os drive and it will reformat etc. automatically. Another option would be to dual boot windows 7 if you have enough free space on your hard drive to partition; so that you can gradually transition from xp to win7; this can be done by selecting to install windows 7 on another partition or hard drive.

2. Since you want lots of RAM, you would want the 64bit version; as the 32bit version is unable to make use of more than 3gb.

[Lee H]

It's really down to personal preference as windows 7 is quite good at upgrading older operating systems. What it does is puts your old windows into a folder called windows.old so that you can get access to any files you might need and stuff like that.

However, if you have your data stored on other drives/partitions I would advise a clean install and if you have 4 Gb of RAM or more and a supporting CPU, go for the 64-bit version of windows

With acronis, you'll need to create new images and stuff of windows 7 when you've finished the install just incase you need to reinstall at any point.

As for the system RAM, if you can let me know your invoice number I can check into the system on the invoice and see what memory we recommend for use with the system.

Best Regards,