upgrade xp or fresh install of windows 7?

Gti · 17 Jan 2011 at 21:43

Im running 32bit windows xp quite happily but my new rig has 8gb of ram and id like to make full use of it with windows 7 ultimate 64 bit (plus it's something else to play with).
The only thing thats stopping me from installing over xp is the worry that some games might not work expecially the older ones are there lots of known issues?.

Im also considering dual booting, my 1tb hard drive is partitioned into 2 500gb or disks.
would there be any noticeable performance slowdown if windows 7 is on the 2nd partition?
would i have to install everything twice to run o whichever os im on?
is it easy to set this up?

thanks for any help

Culinia · 17 Jan 2011 at 21:52

Hi,

There should not be too much of a performance issue. As far as I'm aware, Windows tries to install itself in the centre of the disk - where the most surface area is so theoretically faster read/write times. But with modern disks there should not be too much slowdown to even notice worry about.

I'm afriad it must be game specific - you probably won't know until you run the or search online if there is any problems regarding your older games. One thing to consider is that really old games are programmed in 16-bit and therefore a 64-bit OS cannot run them which would be problematic (obviously) so probably a dual boot install would be a good idea especially if you want to keep old games going.

If you have already XP installed you can dual boot 7 from there provided that you have enough disk space etc. With 7, it is quite easy to do -- guide that may help: http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_windows_7_xp_installed_first.htm

Good luck!

Scuzzy · 17 Jan 2011 at 22:10

GTI , dont worry, setting up a dual boot is easy, as you have XP loaded anyway just pop in your Win 7 disc and it will take care of it !

Burnsy2023 · 17 Jan 2011 at 22:45

If you can avoid dual booting I would. Are you running anything particularly old?

Gti · 18 Jan 2011 at 00:58

Freespace 1/2, UFO, icewind dale 2, deus ex, alpha centauri, baldurs gate 2, fallout 2, mdk 1/2, outcast, star trek birth of the federation.

These are the games i can think of off the top of my head, i suppose the truly old games i play are taken care of by dos box (any known 64bit issues?)
Why would you avoid it Burnsey?