seek advice before re-installing win7 pro

Hi, I would like to upgrade my wife's Dell Vostro 3500 from win 7 pro 32Bit to 64Bit, to take advantage of the extra RAM I got. I have the installation disc. But before I do this, I have a few questions I'd like to get advice from.

1. to my knowledge, it's legal to upgrade from 32Bit to 64Bit using the key from the COA sticker of the laptop since I'm staying with the same win7 version (professional). Is it right?

2. Currently, I see the hard disk has three drives (when you click My Computer): the normal C:, a Recovery partition E:, and a "protected" Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 Q:.
Would the new install reformat the entire hard disk and wipe all the drives/partitions out? I have made a recovery disc of this laptop already, so is there any advantage to keep the Recovery partition? And what about this Office Click-to-Run "protected" drive? What does "protected" mean anyway? In case if I do want to keep the recovery and/or the Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 partition, how do I do that?

3. regarding drivers, this laptop came with a Drivers and Utilities disc from Dell. But for 64Bit win7, I can't use the original drivers which was for 32Bit. So can I get the 64Bit drivers from this disc as well or elsewhere?

I'm not very experienced working with computers, installing OS, etc. So any advice regarding installing OS would be appreciated. If someone can point to a guide for win7 fresh install/re-install fro Dell Vostro 3500, that would be even better.

 

1: To my knowledge, yes it is legal.
2: You can wipe the recovery partition, it isn't a problem as far as i know.
3: You can definitely get the drivers form the Dell website, but sometimes their description of what the driver is for is rather cryptic.

 

Hi,

Are you using the Dell Shipped OEM DVD for re-installation? Since you have created the Recovery CD please back up all the data and confirm that the CDs are working well. Once you use them for reimaging; the recovery partition will get installed again. Please don’t worry about the Q drive it is a virtual drive and once you install the MS-Office 2010 it gets installed again.

Please use the below link for downloading and installing the Drivers for 64 bit Windows.

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

Also please find the below link for the Microsoft Article about Windows re-installation. You may refer to the same if required.

Installing and reinstalling Windows 7

I hope this helps. Please do write back in case you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards
Swapnajan M C
#iworkfordell

 

If Dell shipped you 32bit installation disc, you cant get 64bit windows out of them iirc.

 

thanks tijo, Dellswapnajan, and baiii.

Yes, I realize this and I got the 64Bit win7 pro installation disc. My main concerns was how to get the corresponding 64Bit drivers and whether Recovery partition is worth keeping.

 

You're welcome and for keeping the recovery partition, it really depends on whether you'd like to be able to restore the laptop to it's original state or not. You could also create a set of recovery discs if you want to.

 

I would suggest wiping the HDD clean and then install 64 bit.
then make fresh DVD back ups.
that will work best.

 

Thanks for the advice. But what do you mean by wiping the HDD clean first? I thought the OS installation process would format the HDD and wipe the entire HDD clean anyway. Is that not so? If that is the case, what's the difference in wiping the HDD first?

 

Here is guide on clean install. During the installation process, you can choose to del partition on the harddisk.

Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

 

"what do you mean by wiping the HDD clean first? I thought the OS installation process would format the HDD and wipe the entire HDD clean anyway"
during windows instalation thera will be a menu with will help you to config your hard drive
in your case you will see "C:, a Recovery partition E:, and a "protected" Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 Q:." and probably 100mb non partitinal space.

so you have 2 options :install windows on disk c and keep other disks (it useful when you has drive D:\ with important data) or you can delete all existing partitions and create your own.