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Need advice on partitioning.
I have a Studio 1737 Vista Home Premium 32-bit. I recently got the Vista Home Premium disks 64-bit, from Dell. I want to partition my hard drive and install the Operating system on the new partition and make sure everything works great before I decide my next move. I know I will have to download my drivers from Drivers & Downloads and I know the drivers are available. I will then put them on a disk.
How big do I make the new partition?
How do I make the partition?
Can I boot to the 32-bit when I want and the 64-bit when I want?
What happens to the recovery partition, which is 32-bit?
My doughter has a Vista Home Premium system, Studio 1537 64-bit, so I know some of the items to watch out for. I just never made a partition and do not want to mess things up when I try to do this. If things go well, I will probably go with the 64-bit system and then eventually remove the 32-bit system from the computer. I will then nee some help with this. I do not want to lose any functions and/or the computer during this process.
Thanks,
Rick
Dave576
170 Posts
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August 14th, 2009 23:00
Hi Rick,
I've just went through the whole repartitioning and dual booting phase of my continuing computer learning experience. You will be happy when this is done.
"How big do I make the new partition?"
This will depend on your Free Space on your HD. I keep all my data on another partition, so my OS partitions don't get too big, also the data can be easily accessed from either OS.
On my S-17, I made the 2 OS partitions 55GB each. The Vista Premium 64bit is currently using 25.7 GB, leaving 29.2 free. Win7 is using 18.6GB leaving 36.3 GB free. I have loads of free space. You can probably get away with as little as 40 GB and not have any crowding problems, if your data is on a separate partition, you'll need more space if your data is on your OS partition. Free space allowing, I would add 50% of OS currently used space, but 25% should work.
On my desk top I have a 500GB HD, so lots of free space. Both OS partitions are 84GB. Vista 32bit is using 33.9 GB, 50 GB free. Win7 is using 23.6 GB leaving 60.3 free.
"How do I make the partition?"
Since windows is severly limited (Anti-trust suites) on partitioning abilities I would suggest trying some of the free partitioning programs. Most of the free versions I found were 32bit only. Paragon disk Manager 8.5 wouldn't work for me because of a very small unallocated space between my partitions, but many say it's good. Easeus Partition Manager did work with no issues.
The free Partition Wizard Home Edition works on both 32bit and 64bit. This is what I used on my S17. They all seem to work pretty much the same, once you figure out the basic operation it's pretty easy. You can make all the changes and check them before actually telling it to 'Apply', then it will proceed. You can move, re-size, remove, format, extend, shrink, in any direction. Disk Copy is used to move the contents while the partitioning takes place. All my OS and programs worked just as before.
"Can I boot to the 32-bit when I want and the 64-bit when I want?"
Yes. The option will come up after the BIOS loading screen, the last OS loaded will be the default, usually 30 sec to default or you can choose the one you want and hit enter. Check out the Dual Boot Installation with Windows site, it's for Vista and Win7 but should be the same for dual booting Vista.
"What happens to the recovery partition, which is 32-bit?"
Somehow I knew you would ask this!
Hopefully it will still work if you can make another primary partition. Since dual booting, been having too much fun playing with Win7. You should try Win7, it's gotta be the best OS I've ever used! Even the RC is very stable (you can still get the RC for free until Aug 20 Windows 7 Release Candidate, it will start re-booting every 2 hours on March 2010, cease to run June 2010 ). I ordered 2 on the pre-order sale.
I have read on a couple of sites that if you use a disk to install an OS the recovery partition will not work anymore, seems to be hit and miss as some people say it will still work, if you run startup repair. There are a few posts on a few sites that have methods to repair it, most of them seem to be complex. If you have a backup image of Disk0, you should be able to restore it that way if you want. I made backup images of Disk0 and the recovery partition just in case I want to try and put it back.
With the small 'OEM Partition' , 'Recovery Partition' and 'OS Partition" makes 3 primary partitions. I couldn't find a way to make another primary partition (Logical partition only which I use for my Data Partition) so I backed up everything and re-formatted the recovery partition, adjusted it with Partition Wizard to use it as my second OS partition. Maybe I didn't need to do that, let me know if you find a way to keep the Recovery Partition. At first I put Win7 on my eSATA external HD, liked it so much I wasn't using Vista at all so had to find a way to put Win7 on my internal without losing Vista as I will need that to install the Win7 upgrade.
I am running Vista 32bit and Win7 64bit on my desktop, Vista 64bit and Win7 64bit on my laptop. Planned on changing the Vista 32bit to 64bit (got the disk from Dell) but since Win7 haven't gotten around to it. Will change it if I have to, in October, to get Win7 64bit Loaded. 64bit has been just great for me and don't see any reason to not use it. All the 32bit apps I use run just fine on a 64bit machine. Drivers have been no problem either.
After you have run it for a while I'll bet you format the 32bit drive.
Any questions or clarifications, you know how to find me!
Good luck, you'll be glad you did this.
Dave
RockSt☆r-Rick
286 Posts
1
August 16th, 2009 23:00
Dave,
Well, I have some bad new and I have some good news.
Good news...
I got it working. My daughter has a Studio 1537 Vista Home Premium 64-bit. I couldn't locate the drivers on the disk but...
I found the Broadcom Drivers on Dell website under the Studio 1537 Vista 64-bit system. Installed and presto.
Broadcom BCM5784M LAN or better known as Broadcom Netlink Gigibit Ethernet (64-bit drivers)
Bad news...
I cannot log in to my personal account on the 64-bit system. Afraid I'll get locked out. Have an email in to Gina before I proceed. It has something to do with the Universal login.
Rick
dhanrajc
34 Posts
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August 14th, 2009 14:00
Hi PudgyOne,
This is the Microsoft System Requriments for VIsta
Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate
Note This includes a DirectX 9-class graphics card that supports the following:
2 > HERE is How to Partation.
3 > Yes, You can setup Dual Boot configuration.
4 > The recovery partaion is of no use in Dual boot config. So you can format it for more space.
Regards,
~ Ratz
PudgyOne
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August 16th, 2009 00:00
Dave,
I used the partition program you suggested. I shrank the one partition and then installed on the unallocated partition. Everything was looking good except for two items. The easy one is that I lost my Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet for 64-bit. Still didn't figure out the drivers for that.
Second issue is, my wife sometimes uses the computer. Is there a way to have it boot to the Vista 32-bit instead of the Vista 64-bit system?
Rick
Dave576
170 Posts
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August 16th, 2009 01:00
Rick,
Glad to hear you got it working.
For the Broadcom driver check:
Ethernet NIC NetLink Driver Downloads from Broadcom.
Or here:
Dell Search in Support & Help for Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet Vista 64-bit drivers.
You can choose which OS you want to boot to at startup, after the BIOS loading screen the Boot loader screen will come up, use the up/down arrows to select the 32bit or 64bit Vista. This will default to the last OS installed and start it after 30 seconds if no selection is made.
If you want to change it try using EasyBCD you can change the default OS and time it will start the default OS and a load of other things.
Let me know how it's going,
Dave
PudgyOne
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August 16th, 2009 12:00
Dave,
I'll just keep it logged in to the 32-bit system when I'm away from it, until I get everything the way I want it. Will then setup the account for my wife. I have her account setup to log her in using her fingerprint and then it opens Mozilla Thunderbird to check her emails. I guess I have to make the special message filters, unless I can transfer them over(import/export).
Not sure what the version or the Broadcom Netlink Gigabite Ethernet is or what to do. I tried the 64-bit but don't know what to do with it. Do I have to make the image?
I have other items there and working. Only made the partition 78.1GB and 47.5 GB Free but didn't finish installing programs yet.
Rick
Dave576
170 Posts
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August 16th, 2009 19:00
Rick,
You should be able to import/export your special message filters, but haven't tried it myself.
For the Broadcom Netlink Gigabite Ethernet driver try How to Install a Device Driver in Vista Device Manager.
Similiar to the above link, try if you haven't already and assuming your wired internet connection is working.
Click the start orb, right click 'computer',
click 'manage',
under 'System Tools' click 'Device Manager',
expand 'Network adapters',
right click ' Broadcom Netlink Gigabite Ethernet',
click 'Properties',
click the 'Driver' tab,
click the 'Update Driver' button,
then select 'Search automatically for updated driver software'.
With some luck this will find something. If given a choice I would use the Dell driver first, then the Broadcom driver, and not the MS driver until you have exhausted every option.
You could also try the above path but at the last option click 'Browse my computer for driver software' and direct it to where you put the 64bit driver you found.
If the driver is not the correct one you should get a window saying something like 'No device found for this driver it will not be installed'. If a driver does install and you get a warning or yellow triangle in 'Device Manager' you can 'Roll back Driver' or 'Uninstall". Then try another one.
let me know how it's going,
Dave
PudgyOne
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August 17th, 2009 01:00
Dave,
You said...
Right now, my files and folders are on the partition with Vista 32-bit system. If I read this correctly, what you're saying is if I want to save pictures and documents, I can still save them on the partition that has Vista 32-bit, this way it keeps the Vista 64-bit system for mostly operating, correct?
Rick
Dave576
170 Posts
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August 17th, 2009 03:00
Hi Rick,
Glad to hear it's all going fairly well.
Login is kinda good to have working!
What I always do is make a logical partition and call it Data, this is where I put all of my files and folders, pictures, music, Downloads, misc software (and copies for re-installing), drivers, Misc info and any other Data. Between work files and documents, and my accumulation I have 57GB.
My disk has 4 partitions now:
The little Dell primary partition
OS Vista (D:) Primary partition
OS Win7 (C:) Primary partition
Data (F:) Logical partition
If /When I need to do a OS re-install, I can do a clean install to an OS partition and my Data partition won't be touched. I keep regular backups of all of it, just in case. I've done this even before I started dual booting. Don't think I have ever used 'My Documents' folder for anything. I have too much to keep in a single folder, so I have my own 'filing system'. You can change your browsers default download location to the Data partition. This also keeps the OS partition size small and clean.
You can just do like you mentioned above and when your happy with the 64bit Vista, copy your personal files from 32bit partition to the 64bit partition. Delete the old 32bit partition and use it for something else or extend the 64bit partition into it.
What happened to your Login?
Dave