Moving from Win7 32bit to x64

Hello all,

Forgive the noobishness but just a small question :)

I'm currently running a 32bit download upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium, I got this through the 'Ultimate Steal' promotion where UK University students could download the upgrade for a reduced price, I upgraded from Vista Premium 32bit.

I now wish to change to the 64-bit version of Win7 Ultimate. I only have the one hard drive, which I will fully re-format in installation of the 64-bit version.

I can get the 64bit Win7 Upgrade disc for the nicely reduced price of £55 through a student software website. :)

Would I be able to re-format and install Win7 Ult 64-bit using this disc? Or will I need to purchase the full retail (non-upgrade) Package to do so?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Cris

Thanks John. :)

I just had a look at the site from which I was going to buy the Win7 Ultimate 64bit dvd and it states this:

Please Note: changes to UK release of Microsoft Windows 7
Software4Students ask all our customers to please note that Microsoft have recently made a number of changes to the European release of Microsoft Windows 7. Please be aware that while this is subject to change, the latest information that we have is as follows:

This version of Windows 7 ships as an upgrade edition. It is NOT possible or permitted to perform a clean install with this product. You must have an existing valid Windows operating system on your hard disk. All editions of Windows 7 will now include the Internet Explorer 8 web browser as standard.


Does this mean that this disc will ONLY upgrade from another 64bit version of Windows, and not allow me to custom/clean install Win7 x64 from win7 32bit by booting from the disc and formatting the drive and custom installing?

thanks

Thanks very much for the help Jonathan :)

Thanks for your reply myzr7,

But does completely reformatting the drive, thus removing previous windows versions not mean doing a clean/custom install on what is a blank disk after re-formatting?

The fact it says 'not possible' is confusing, does this mean the 'Custom install' option is removed completely?

Looking through the forums it seems there is/was a lot of confusion regarding upgrade packages

Cris:

We saw similarly worded, imprecise, fuzzy descriptions for the standard Windows 7 upgrade disc.

People all over the net, including Microsoft employees, were saying that you could not do a clean install with the retail upgrade disk. Some MS documents implied as much.

Turns out they were dead wrong--at the top of their voice.

That doesn't mean your offer might in fact not allow a clean install, but I would not put much creedence in a boilerplate statement like you have quoted.

Best advice--either try it or find somebody who has for a first hand opinion.