HELP please techis - reformat hard drive?

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Well, you may remember sons gaming computer arrived at Christmas without an Operating System. I put my VISTA Home Premium on it but as some of you pointed out this was not legal and I tried to find out if I can buy a further licence key for more than one puter. Some people said yes, some no and I finally decided it must be a no. SO I told son to buy the new 64 bit OS he needed for the puter. (my goodness, its expensive)

The 64 bit Home Premium cd has arrived today but when he tries to put it on apparently it tells him to reformat his hard drive? Is this because my old Vista program is on there? Can anyone help please???:o

[jaydax]

Woah! Stop!
The 64 bit version of Vista is useless for gaming computers!

[Heather Positive Thinker]

jaydax, he has been told by his gaming mates its the best and ditto the firm he bought the gaming puter from. ?? The firm said as the puter is 8 gb, he needs the 64 bit for it to run at optimum.

[WendyPusey]

Dave says you do need to reformat the hard drive before installing the OS.

[jaydax]

A bit more information.
Most PC games will not work with the 64 bit version of Vista. You would be much better with the 32 bit version you have.
You can buy an extra licence for the 32 bit OS but you need a different installation DVD to use it.
You can also 'downgrade' from the 64 bit version of Vista to the 32 bit version.
Try using your Vista Home Premium DVD with your 64 bit licence key.

Curious - how did you manage to buy a PC without an operating system? My understanding is that that's illegal unless you buy bits and assemble it yourself.

[jaydax]

The 8Gb RAM is why they suggest a 64 bit OS. Vista 32 bit will not allow you to use more than 3GB of RAM. A gaming machine needs the standard 32 bit OS and a fast graphics card. Only a few games will work with the 64 bit OS and lots of other software & hardware is temperamental with the 64 bit version too.

[jaydax]

I stand corrected. Apparently some of the newer games are happy with the 64 bit OS and can make use of the extra RAM you have. Others will work using the 32 bit emulator which comes with Vista 64. Some games need a patch to work with either version of Vista. Older games may not work with the 64 bit Vista at all.

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Many thanks, apparently, guided by his cyber mate fellow gamers he is now up and running at 8 gb - lets hope it all proceeds smoothly


Wendy, he seems have put it over the other Vista program - I darent ask to be honest - he said something about putting the old program in a separate folder and he will then delete it? He is happy at the moment running at 8 gb at last.

[Grimsqueaker]

The 8Gb RAM is why they suggest a 64 bit OS. Vista 32 bit will not allow you to use more than 3GB of RAM. A gaming machine needs the standard 32 bit OS and a fast graphics card. Only a few games will work with the 64 bit OS and lots of other software & hardware is temperamental with the 64 bit version too.

Correction, 32bit versions of Windows will not address > 4GB of RAM

[Grimsqueaker]

Curious - how did you manage to buy a PC without an operating system? My understanding is that that's illegal unless you buy bits and assemble it yourself.

Nope - it is perfectly legal to purchase a 'naked' pc... however since the majority of consumers expect to take a PC out of the box, plug it in and go, they are not common

[Chipesh]

A bit more information.

Curious - how did you manage to buy a PC without an operating system? My understanding is that that's illegal unless you buy bits and assemble it yourself.

.
Quite the opposite. The legality of pre-installing and pre-charging for Windows is under scrutiny by Europe as it gives Microsoft and unfair advantage in promoting their software and is unfair on the consumer who may want to use other OS (not just Linux there are others).

It's not just the OS but things like Internet Explorer and the default search engines and thus the associated revenue streams from advertising.
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You can actually refuse the Windows licence and insist on your licence fee back that was included in the price.

Windows is not free

It has been done

Buying a PC and a separate OEM disk is actually a good idea if you feel confident about it. You get a real install disk instead of some unreliable restore partition or burnt recovery disks.
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Bob