About to install Vista 64bit. Advice very welcome!

[acrobat]

Hello everyone. I just got Windows Vista 64bit Business Edition. I am going to install it in the next few days, and I was hoping to find out from people, if there are any good tips to know before I start?

With XP, everything was easy peasy. But from what I've read about Vista, its often portrayed as being like skating on thin ice, so I thought I should check first.

Anyway, I have a C2D E6600, 2gig of DDR2, 8800GTX, SoundBlaster X-Fi Music Edition, and a few hard disks. From what I've read, there are drivers for all these things, and it should all work. So here are my questions anyway.

1) Based on what I mentioned I have, do you think it will all work ok?
2) Should I download anything before I format my current Windows XP PC?
3) When I'm ready to do it, I am planning on backing up everything I need onto my backup hard drive, and then installing Vista onto my main disk, which I'm hoping will format the main disk so that Vista gets a nice fresh install. Does that sound right?
4) Just double checking, Vista wouldn't do anything to my second and third hard disks would it? I am hoping they won't be touched by Vista at all, and that once Vista is installed on my main disk, my other two disks will just appear as backup disks - like they currently do in Windows XP.
5) Can you think of any advice that might be worth giving me before I do this? I know nothing about what is about to happen I have the vista disk and a legitimate key etc, so I'm just hoping it all works similar to installing XP.


Thank you

[Pyr0]

1) yeah it should work, but you forgot to say what motherboard/chipset you have
2) are you planning on using raid? grab network drivers just in case, the rest you can grab once vista is installed
3) sounds like a plan
4) unplug em before starting the install in case vista decides to use one of them to store some boot files, plug em back in after the install
5) consider dual booting

[0iD]

I had no problems installing Vista x64, just make sure you have all the latestd drivers for your kit on a unzipped CD or DVD. Some old games and apps wont work with x64, so keep your XP install & dual boot with Vista for a while, just in case. Or even wipe your disk, format & partition, install XP on one partition & Vista on the other, always install XP first. It will probably come in handy from time-to-time.

If you have an OEM copy, not a retail one you won't be able to change your motherboard, only like for like. Re-activating is a bit more picky than XP, but not greatly so.

I had no problem with multiple disks, but if you're worried, unplug them by all means.

Installing is no different from XP tbh. Straightfoward & painless if you have all the drivers & apps you need ready.

[redlight]

Be patient. Vista is annoying at first and I am sure like others over the first couple of days using it you will wonder why you bothered.
Persevere and get used to it. Its worth it.
Dont believe everything you read you will be surprised at how many programs actually do work with Vista 64 try and see.
If they dont then there is usually an alternative that will.

[0iD]

It's not that bad tbh, apart from the odd game and X-Fi drivers I've had very few problems. The only real bugbear is digital driver signing & UAC, the latter can be turned off, but it is an effective security measure. Third party software firewalls are few & far between also if you have need.

[redlight]

This works great download a months free trial and give it go. Kaspersky Security Suite
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/

[Clunk]

Another vote for the kaspersky thing. Yoyotech have it for around a tenner for the oem version, and its excellent.

I used V-lite and added all the drivers that I could. Some worked, and some only gave limited functionality.

The last time I installed x64 directly from the standard microsoft DVD, I kept getting a black screen that needed to be reset to carry on. By adding the latest Nvidia drivers, I didnt get the black screen.

[acrobat]

Thank you everyone! Much appreciated.

I'm not sure I would really want to dual boot though. I don't really know how that would work but I will think about it I suppose. My XP is currently installed in a partition of its own on my hard disk, and I have an empty bunch of assigned space, which I could maybe get Vista to use. I would just find it odd using two OS's, and I wouldn't want the Vista install to interfere with the XP install. I was hoping to just use one or the other. So if Vista 64 can't do something I need, I could just wait until it can. And if it can run modern games and stuff, then I could just move entirely to it.

What games do you guys have issues with? I don't really mind about old games, because I only really play modern ones. And if I ever did want to play an old game, it wouldn't be for a long time, and by then, I'm assuming most issues will be ironed out.

But are there any modern ones that have issues?


p.s. Motherboard is a Gigabyte DS4 965p
Not going to be using raid.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've decided to not bother "upgrading" to Vista.

I double checked all the software I use, and some games, and evidently it all works. But I read a few threads where people are talking about how their frame rates in games have dropped, often by a HALF. I know Vista doesn't like it when people only have a gig of ram, and my 8800GTX might help things. But still, I am thinking there is really no point if it is causing other people to grind to a halt.

One thread had people talking about very fast performance in some games on XP and then painfully slow performance in Vista
:http://www.rawcool.com/all/will-wind...ow-gaming.html

So I think I will just skip it, or wait.

I am assuming they will improve things in the next 6 months or so, so I will just hold off until then.

Thanks all.

[TrentBoy]

I am looking at putting together a new gaming rig and obviously thinking hard about which OS to go for. With the price of Vista being less than XP Pro i think its the obvious choice. But is there any advantages over the 64 bit version compared to the 32 bit? I know the 32 bit only handles up to 3.2Gig of RAM but is there anything major to prevent me going for 64 over 32?

[Blitzen]

5) consider dual booting

Why...thats a pointless waste of time?
64 Bit Vista is fine now so dont worry and enjoy it.
If you can though, stick the RAID drivers for your mobo onto a floppy. It does ask for them.

Another vote for the kaspersky thing

and another one here......its the BEST AV i have used and use very little resource.

[Clunk]

Why...thats a pointless waste of time?
64 Bit Vista is fine now so dont worry and enjoy it.

I have a dual boot setup, and I'm glad I did it. Theres still a few things that run a bit slower, or struggle to run properly at all, that havent been updated, and if, like me, you have some of these, then a dual boot is the way to go.

Windows mail is still painfully slow for me on both the 32bit and 64bit versions of vista, and explorer 7 is almost as bad, and I should mention windows media player that uses the equivalent of a 3.5ghz core to play an mp3.

Not quite problem free yet

[jackvdbuk]

and I should mention windows media player that uses the equivalent of a 3.5ghz core to play an mp3.

Not quite problem free yet

LoL! you can use winamp you know, and an alternative Browser

[Blitzen]

Windows mail is still painfully slow for me on both the 32bit and 64bit versions of vista, and explorer 7 is almost as bad

Really?
I have found both faster than previous versions...especially Windows Mail, and i have 3 gmail accounts and 2 other web-based accounts linked to it.

[Clunk]

LoL! you can use winamp you know, and an alternative Browser

I use foobar2000 and firefox. Working ok now those

Really?
I have found both faster than previous versions...especially Windows Mail, and i have 3 gmail accounts and 2 other web-based accounts linked to it.

Yeah, I dont think its a hardware/driver problem, as the 32bit is on a dell laptop, with all the latest drivers, and the 64bit is on my main pc, again with all the latest drivers.

Hmmm, drivers..lets not even go there

[acrobat]

The main thing holding me back, is the X-Fi drivers, and that most games are meant to run a bit slower. So it wouldn't seem like much of an UPgrade if the games are slower.

I'm not sure what DX10 would do for them, but theres only a few games that seem to even make use of it so far, and they aren't much different to the DX9 version.

I think if people are still suggesting dual booting, I'll just forget it for now. I don't really have the will to maintain two operating systems so I'll just stick with XP until Vista is good enough for me to move, without worrying about whether things will work etc.

[Splash]

The main thing holding me back, is the X-Fi drivers, and that most games are meant to run a bit slower. So it wouldn't seem like much of an UPgrade if the games are slower.

It was the same when migrating from Win2k to XP. As the OS has developed it generally requires better hardware. That said, now that I'm running E6850, 8800GTS, 4Gb RAM I wouldn't go back to XP if you paid me. Unless it was a significant amount of money, then I might just consider it.