[leebra]

i have vista on my home computer but its 32bit an the pc 64bit. i know this is not a problem because it works. but i still want to upgrade. i believe all i need is the installer for 64bit vista. now i think i saw on MS some where that i can use my 32bit install product key iirc, an that they would even send me a DVD for the price of postage, i really don't know if that's right, i still cant find the link.

[Elvandil]

I don't believe that you can upgrade directly. You either need to remove 32 and buy a full, 64-bit installation, or revert to XP and use the 64-bit Vista upgrade.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Upgra...ta-59885.shtml

[leebra]

i understand that i will have to a clean install. should i buy the media or should the supplier of my PC provide for me

[Elvandil]

It depends on what you signed when you bought it. If you can get it from the manufacturer, then do it.

But if the prices are comparable, I'd go with a normal, full version with a DVD that can be used for repairs. A "recovery partition" is pretty useless if it restores factory settings, and is completely useless if a drive fails.

The best backup and repair method is a full disk image that can restore everything.

Macrium Reflect

It's not a bad idea to plan for recovery options at the beginning instead of when all your data is in danger.