Windows 7 Upgrade win 7 32bit to win 7 64 bit

[glandsb500]

Just got a new laptop and win7 32 bit was already installed. The laptop is a 64 bit processor so I need to upgrade to 64 bit Win 7 as I am not presently able to access all 6 GB of memory. IS it possible to upgrade without loosing all my settings or will I have to do a clean install?

 

[gavin19]

It's not possible as the OS architecture is different, it has to be a clean install. You could backup your files and settings if you know where the folders are located. For the most part they should be compatible. I kept the settings for Firefox, Chrome, uTorrent and several other apps and they worked fine when I added them back into the clean install. Don't forget to backup other possibly important folder groups like 'My Documents' too just in case

 

[Mitchell_A]

To add to Gavin's post, if you choose not to format your hard drive, Windows will put your old installation in a folder named "windows.old" where you will be able to access your user files and copy them over to your new installation, if you don't want to backup.