Can I install both 32 bit & 64 Windows -7 on same HDD ?

Partition 1 has Win XP & Partition 2 has Windows -7 ( 32 bit ) ( Ultimate Version )

I am getting a new machine with i-7 Processor & 12 GB RAM, 1 GB ATI Video card & 500 GB HDD.

Can I format the Win XP partition & install 64 bit version of Windows 7 & use that HDD in new machine by booting 64 bit version ?

Meaning can I have both 32 bit & 64 bit versions of Windows -7 in 2 different partitions on the same HDD so that I can use that hard drive in both machines, the old and the new ?

That way I can boot 32 bit when I put that HDD in old M/C and boot 64 bit when I use the same HDD in new Machine ?

The reason is this :

I have Five 500 GB internal HDDs.

Currently in my old machine I have 2 drive slots & I clone my HDDs twice a week as a back up. In my new machine there is only one slot & since all of my HDDs are internal, I can not clone them in new machine. So I will be using old machine just for clonning HDDs twice a week.

Sounds crazy but I will appreciate all Ideas.

Thank You.

 

You absolutely can do this. It is called having a dual boot system.

 

You would have driver conflicts if the hardware differs. It might even BSOD.

 

I'm not sure on the dual install. Two installations of XP one for each PC would work but because Win7 uses the System Reserved partition to store some information about the PC it is booting from, I'm not sure how having two installs of Win7 for two different computers would effect that partition. I guess it is a try it and see sort of thing from my limited knowledge point of view.

One thought is getting an USB to IDE/SATA adapter for your cloning. If you are backing up twice a week it may be a good investment.

 

I found that I could clone my hard drive to ub caddy (1.5tb to 1 tb using Seagates wizard, when one or, other hard drive was a Seagate,so, you could use your old pc as a hard drive caddy, and use a usb connection , with seperate power connector to give power to the torage/backup drives (esata connection speeds it up), and by-pass motherboard conection altogether, with a little bit of thought., and adaptor.
If the 64 bit is a different disc to the original, then you would not get a problem putting on new pc- the old 32bit might refuse to be legal, as it has been registered to your old pc.If you try to use the same dvd to instal the W7 64bit version, I understand it will not be legal, as the disc is only good for one version (otherwise not legal) If it is a full version (not OEM) then you may find things better.
If it does not blue screen, on the old, owing to different cpu's and chipsets.then no problem,
I run XP, Vista 64bit, and Windows 7 32 bit on same hard drive- no problem- even if W7 wants to call itself C: Partition, on both instals, (I have 4 copies , all with different programs of W7 on my hard drive-no problem) but I use HyperOs for backups, and Partitions, and it will save to external hard drives-Windows 7 will backup to External hard drives , and dvd, so I often use rewritable dvd's for that- I keep a clone of the whole Hard Drive (1.5tb) and that saves me having too much equiptment around- but just to save a couple of partitions of Windows 7, I would, and do, back by esata to caddy.In your case5 caddies.........