Guys i need ur help all with this problem, we have an application with a specified license we ende the contract with the developer so we cannot get a new license key for, anyway we recently got a new application servers to replace the old ones, these old servers were 32 bit while they new ones are 64 bit, we tried to take an image of the OS from the 32 bit old servers and restored it to the new one, then i followed it by a Windows repair and its worked fine, but we couldn't get the benefits of the 64 bit application, and installation OS from scratch will not work cause the license key for the application was created on the old one, any ideas to upgrade to 64 bit without loosing the settings ?

What did you use to make the image of the drive? When you make an image it should carry over everything, and in theory, everything should work. The only thing that i can think of is that the license is non transferable and when it detects new hardware it freaks out and thinks it's being pirated.

Am I understanding this correctly, you want to upgrade the application AND the server to 64-bit?

I don't believe there's any way to upgrade an OS from 32- to 64-bit, it always requires a fresh install (at least Redhat, Solaris, and Windows do, the three OSes we have in house).

If you want to upgrade the APP to 64-bit and move it to a 64-bit server, that's going to depend on the app itself and you'll likely have to go back and contact the developer on how to do so. Most apps that I have require different license keys for upgrades to 64-bit. Even if you could figure out how to move the app with all the associated files and reg tweaks (if it's a Windows app), the executables will still be 32-bit and gain no benefit, you'll need a 64-bit-specific version of the app.

Illrigger actually you remind me with a so useful point, i forgot about that the application itself will running in the 32 bit emulator, and as i told you this application is developed locally and i don't think they have any plans for a 64 bit any soon, and over all we ended our contract with them, but let me ask you something do you think running the app in a 32 bit windows gonna equal running it in a 64 bit windows as long as that the application itself is 32 bit ?

Yes, the app will run identically to how it did on a 32-bit OS if it's a 32-bit app on an x64 OS. The only advantage to running it on a 64-bit platform is so you can run other apps on the same server that are either 64-bit, or can take advantage of the extra RAM you can address from a 64-bit OS.

One issue you might run into on some windows apps is that 32-bit apps will install into the Program Files (x86) folder by default instead of Program Files. This has caused be a few issues on apps that were poorly coded and expected to be in Program Files only; I had to reinstall them and force them to install there.

Exactly. My experience is the same. It's quite annoying really, especially on 64-bit Vista. The first time i tried it, I assumed everything would go to the regular Program Files (non x86), but it didn't. Is there reasoning behind this why they have created a Program Files X86 folder? Is it just to keep things organized or what?

Most likely Scott it's to prevent conflicts between the two sets. Especially with shared, underlying components such as the "Common Files".

I haven't actually experienced a 64-bit Windows installation though, so good to know.

Hello all.

Is is possible to grab the x64 files from the cd, and copy them to the new os? To determine their locations and renaming scheme may be too much. But it would seem possible.

You know, one thing that has always bugged me about Windows x64 is the System32 and SysWOW64 folders. System32 contains the 64-bit files, and SysWOW64 contains the 32-bit files. Leave it to Microsoft...

Rather than redirecting 32-bit programs to the SysWOW64 folder, what would have been wrong with leaving 32-bit files in the System32 folder, and putting 64-bit files in a new System64 folder?


lol

Maybe it's possible, but you'd have one hell of a time trying to do it! I'm sure there are plenty of differences in the registry also.

Yes it is. It also has the same SysWOW64 part etc. for 32bit apps in the registry. A lot of other registry keys are probably different as well.

As I recall Hyper-V can do a snapshot copy of a physical box & import it to a virtualized image (which should bring the lic with...). Why not explore that option?

Granted it requires you jump to Server 2008, but that (will need to happen eventually and) would give you three birds with one stone.

Hyper-V does indeed do that, as does VMWare. Hyper-V is still in RC phase, however, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (needed for the P2V conversion) is in beta. I'm running both in my dev sandbox, and they're great, but I wouldn't use them in production until both halves go RTW - which should be in June for Hyper-V and before the end of the summer for SCVMM08.

Be aware that you'll want at least two machines in a clustered environment to run any form of server virtualization, for high availability reasons.