Help! Fresh Vista64 Install on New SSD. Guidance Needed.

Thank you for being willing to give me some guidance -- this is going to be kinda complicated. My Gateway FX 6850 notebook has hard drive issues and I'm taking the opportunity to upgrade from Vista32 to Vista64 on a new SSD ordered today from Tiger. Looking ahead I see several issues:

1. UPGRADE: I'm upgrading from Vista32 to V64 (Home Premium) assuming that my Vista32 license covers V64. I've been all over this forum looking for answers to the upgrade question, and to the best of my knowledge my V32 license (no installation disks; OS came with the computer) covers the same version of V64. Will I need to burn V64 onto DVDs to install, or can I install from my portable hard drive (I downloaded V64 from a torrent site)? Can I install directly onto the new SSD, or will I have to install V32 first? Can you point me toward a tutorial for upgrading from V32 to V64?

2. DRIVERS: This is the link to Gateway driver page for my system -- had to insert a (dot) for . because links aren't allowed for noobs like me:
support.gateway(dot)com/us/en/product/default.aspx?partNumber=1015363
It appears that x86 and x64 drivers come bundled together, but will you please verify for me? It would be an awful surprise to get into the installation and find out that the drivers I have on hand won't work. Will Vista64 install workable drivers automatically? If so, this is a moot concern.

3. CUSTOM INSTALL: My SSD is only 64GB so I'm going to keep the OS as light as possible. Do you know of a tutorial for custom installing V64? I'm going to run the OS and primary software off the SSD, and keep everything else like video and music files on a portable HD.

4. BACK RUB: Nothing is ever as easy as it appears when it comes to computers, so after all this is done I'm going to need a back rub, a bottle of whiskey, and an appointment with a therapist. If you answer 1-3 for me, I'll take of 4

Your help is much appreciated!

 

When you purchase a copy of Vista, it typically comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. There is a single license that covers both -- but the catch is, you can't legally use both copies at the same time. Also, there is no upgrade path from 32-bit to 64-bit. So, go ahead and install the 64-bit version. When it asks for a key, use the same one you did with the 32-bit version.

Don't know about the drivers. Experimented with 64-bit a while back and so much did not work right, that I went back to 32-bit. Things may be better now (this was a few months ago), but 32-bit is working fine -- so I've stayed with it.

As to the SSD, Macrium Reflect (the backup and recovery folks) have a product option that allows you to migrate an existing install to a smaller SSD -- by identifying the things you don't need (like large multimedia files). You might want to check their site for details.

 

That's helpful, thank you. A friend of mine has a similar Gateway notebook but running Vista64, and I found driver packages at the Gateway support website, so hopefully I'll have better luck upgrading to x64. I've heard it really boosts performance, and with the new SSD, I'm hoping to get another couple of years out of my 'puter. I'll check out Macrium. Thanks again.