Updating changeover?

I just bought Win 7 Premium and now herein lies the ?
Did a thorough scan and clean of my OEM Vista Home Premium 32 bit system plus a backup.
Did the Windows 7 compabality test to see if I could run Win 7 and what I needed to upgrade old programs. Found I could upgrade to Win 7 32bit but could also go 64 bit.
Win 7 home premium came with a 32 bit and 64 bit disks. I tried 64 bit first and wouldn't upgrade but 32 did. But would like to go 64 bit so my question is why can't I go with 64 bit upgrade? Does it have anything to do with my old OEM Vista Home Premium 32 bit system?
If you look at my system specs the Intel 2 quad processor should handle it and 3 GB ram are enough to go Win 7. What am I missing? TIA

You can't do an inplace upgrade install from 32 to 64 bit. It must be a clean install.

pebbly said:

Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version follow this tutorial and you will be able to install 64bit :)

Which option is the easiest?

dnorris said:

You can't do an inplace upgrade install from 32 to 64 bit. It must be a clean install.

This looks very time consuming.
Is it worth the trouble to do a clean install just to get 64bit when it appears the 32 bit is running ok?

pebbly said:

born2golf said:

dnorris said:

You can't do an inplace upgrade install from 32 to 64 bit. It must be a clean install.

This looks very time consuming.
Is it worth the trouble to do a clean install just to get 64bit when it appears the 32 bit is running ok?

if i was you i would stick with 32 bit , you will not feel the benefit of 64bit with only 3gb ram

How much more ram would make it worth it using DDR2 ram now?

A clean install is always best as it doesn't import corruption from Vista.

Make your Vista recovery disks if avail, back up your files externally or to a secondary drive, gather your program installers.

Boot the DVD, select Custom install, use Drive Tools to delete all, create new partition(s) as you wish, then format before installing to first partition.

The installer is driver complete, with newer being quickly delivered by Windows Update. Any missing drivers or favorite apps can be found on the maker's Support Downloads webpage for your model computer, Adobe (Reader, flash) and Java (runtime, free Ofc suite) sites.

Take your time to install programs to check performance after each. Don't let them Startup with computer (in msconfig>Startup) unless they absolutely need to be running when the computer starts - most don't, only AV and perhaps gadgets or IM.

When you have it setup the way you want and it's running great, save a Win7 backup image externally so you never have to reinstall again, just reimage the HD (or replacement) in 15 minutes using DVD or Repair CD.