Re-configuring system from 32 bit Vista to dual boot 32 bit and 64 bit Win 7

[dhrasmussen]

I’m currently operating with an ASUS P5WDG2 Pro with 4 Gigs of Ram with Vista 32 bit OS loaded on 1 Tera Drive with data.
I would like to reconfigure the system loading both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7 on a 500 Gig drive with 250 Gigs for 32 bit os and programs and 250 Gigs for 64 bit OS and programs, and have all data on 2 – 1 Terabit Drives.

Is there a simple way to separate the current Vista OS and Programs from the data, onto the 32 bit 250 Gig partition of the 500 Gig drive and then load the 64 gig and programs on the other section in its own 250 Gig Partition. Then have 2 1 Tera Drives for data only.

So the first question is,
Is there a simple way to separate the data from the OS and Programs on the current drive?

Or is it simply better to go clean load Windows 7 – 32 bit on the 250 Gig Partition and Windows 7 – 64 bit on the other 250 Gig Partition and then reload all my programs. I have backed up the whole system on an external e-sata drive, and backed up all data to yet another external drive.
Thanks
david@drasmussen.com

 

[WR2]

Hello dhrasmussen;
#1 - no easy way to do that.
#2 - a clean install is always the preferred option when you don't actually need to do an in-place upgrade from Vista->Win7.
But if you have a pretty huge installed program base in Vista32 you can get away with a in-place install to Win7 32. In your place I'd give it a go. Just do some housekeeping at cleaning up the Vista 32 registry first. CCleaner ver 3

How much will you be going back and forth between the 32bit and 64bit versions of Win7?
What reason do you have for doing the data segregation?

 

[boiler1990]

You can separate the partitions, but there isn't a need. If your drive fails, all of the data is going with it, and even if a partition is corrupted you may need to wipe the whole drive.

Why do you need to run both versions of the OS?