Well today I took the plunge and bought Win7 Home Premium 32/64. That's what the box said, I get the 32 bit and 64 bit and yes both disks are in the box.
I was already to install Win7 64 bit to a new hard drive so I could dual boot.

Well they don't mention this  but if you are upgrading from XP-32 bit, you can not upgrade to Win7-64 bit. Hell the box said Premium so why not?
If I had known I would have bought the full install version... there's 129 bucks down the drain.

Anyone know of a work around for this?

Other than that, I can dual boot although Poser 8 will not run because of a dual monitor issue I think. 'Still working on that.

Attached Link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3179/migrate-xp-to-windows-7-with-easy-transfer-and-a-usb-drive/

you just perform a full install as normal. use the guide I linked to backup your files, since it will be a full reinstall, not an upgrade as such. (you can't upgrade XP to Win7 or a 32bit system to 64bit. it's a full install to do it, but the 'upgrade' you've bought will work as a full installer)

your gonna love 64 bit computing!!!!

 Thanks for the ray of hope....!

When I place the 64 bit disk in the drive, it gives me this message.

Windows Setup

This installation disc isn’t compatible with your version of Windows. To upgrade, you need the correct installation disc. For more information, check your computer’s system information. To install a new copy of Windows, restart (boot) your computer using the installation disc, and then select Custom (advanced).

Remember this is the UPGRADE version that needs a clean install.
So I installed the 32 bit version thinking it would ask if I wanted the 64 bit... nope.

you've been able to do a full, clean install of Windows with an upgrade disk as long as I've been using a computer ;o).

What it's telling you is that you need to do a clean install for the 64 bit. You can't just upgrade if you'e going from 32 bit to 64, so follow what the disk is telling you - reboot with the disk in and do a clean install. Back up things you want to keep, because you'll have to reinstall the programs you use after you've completed the install.
Laurie

You can do it.  Sharen

Maybe I should clarify:

You CAN do a clean install of Win 7 64 with your upgrade disk. What you can't do is UPGRADE to 64 bit from 32 bit. You MUST do a clean install to get Win 7 64 bit on your machine. Unfortunately, this means you will need to back up EVERYTHING you want to keep because you are going to have to reinstall every program you use after you have 64 bit on your computer. And settings, files or whatever you had before won't be there after you install the 64 bit os. The hard drive essentially gets wiped in order to install the os.

You also might wanna research if all the programs you use work with Windows 7, especially if it's a 32 bit program on the 64 bit os. So far I've only run into one program of mine that will not install - Photoshop 7.

Was that clearer? :o)

Laurie

 Thanks for the encouragement everyone.... we are 64ing at this moment...!

Here's what happened.
I did reset the bios to boot first from the DVD. However it took sooooo long and I wasn't getting the reassurance that things wouldn't be reformatted so I bailed on the first go... hence my post.

With the guidance given here I tried again and was more patient. And finally it worked and I was asked where to install Win 7. (I was afraid  XP would be trashed)

So the next part of this is, all my programs are on a separate Programs drive. Dual boot remaps the drives on boot up so all the poser references will be broken. I guess I will have to reinstall Poser.
As for the other programs, do I use the Windows Migrate Program to move x86 programs into the special x86 folder or can I just move then across into this folder.

Thanks for all the help.

now you can actually use more than 4 gig of memory (even though Poser doesn't...well, I don't know about 8 orr not...;)

I use poser 8 with 8 gb's of ram and the difference is enormus.  Sharen