[invisible_wall]

I'm a noob making the jump from XP to 7 and I'm wondering about a few things

1. I'm on 32bit right now, what incompatibilities might happen when I go to the 64bit version of windows 7? I know my hardware is compatible but what about my all my programs?

2. I have a single 640gb hd and only 40gb of free space right now. Would it be possible to make a partition for 7, move some files over, increase the size of the win7 partition, then move more files over? Would anything get corrupt?

3. By moving files from XP to 7, does that mean I have to backup my XP stuff on dvds and paste it over from there? Or would it be possible to go into the XP part of my hd while win7 is booted and move stuff over?

4. Is GParted a good program to make hd partitions with? Do I need anything else?

[Yamikotai]

1. None that I know of, I have also gone from 32-bit to 64-bit W7, and had no troubles. Except for a printer driver actually, there wasn't a 64-bit version of it. But then I found it worked fine without the driver anyway.

2. Yes, that should work. It's very unlikely anything would become corrupted.

3. Yup. DVDs is one way of doing it, USB sticks works well too and external hard drives is even easier.

4. Very good, it's the one I use. And I don't think you'll need anything else.

[kimsland]

1. Ideally you should install the 64bit version of all your programs, or use Windows 7 compatibility mode on ones that don't have 64bit option

The Enterprise, Ultimate and Professional versions of 64 bit Windows 7 also support a 32 bit Windows XP virtual machine, which is available as optional download. Your PC must support hardware level virtualisation to use this facility

2. No you are best to backup your data to external media first
Then install Windows 64bit clean, and then return the backed up data

3. I think your XP partition will be hidden. Therefore back as per "2" above

4. Yes
Although I would suggest to clean install Windows 7 (as you only have 40Gig left on the drive), you can use Gparted to help create a new partition for Windows 7 64Bit, from a Windows XP only machine

Here's a guide that may help you in doing that:
How to dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7 (XP installed first)

[Mak213]

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 - Help & How-to - Microsoft Windows

Direct from Microsoft.