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My system is dual booted one with WIndows 7 32 bit and other with Ubuntu 10 32 bit. But my lap supports 64 bit. I want to install 64 bit ubuntu on my system. Will it be best to uninstall old Ubuntu 32 bit from my system and then install 64 bit of it or install it afresh by keeping ubuntu 32 bit on one side afraid of loosing files. I am not sure whether i have created a separate partition for ubuntu 32 bit during my installation, but pretty sure the primary boot system was windows.

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    I think it's a good idea to always back up your files before doing anything with partitions whatsoever, even simple little things. Hey, back up your files anyway (on an external hard drive or dropbox). Anyway what i would do would be to back it up and do a clean install. You could also shrink your old ubuntu down, install the new one, then move everything from the old ubuntu into the new one, then reformat the old one and make it into an extra partition. I have a partition like that that used to be swap, now it's extra ntfs storage for both windows and ubuntu.
    – Rabbit
    Jan 29, 2015 at 13:48
  • You can dualboot, triple boot, etc. as many OS's as you can have primary partitions.
    – Elder Geek
    Jan 29, 2015 at 16:33

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Here is what you can do:

Take a large usb or hard drive, connect it to your computer and download the files on the ubuntu os that you want.

Next, go into windows and remove all the ubuntu files.

Then re install the new ubuntu on the partition.

Your good to go!

Hope this helps.

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  • It shouldn't be necessary to go into windows to delete the ubuntu files, the disk or live usb you are installing ubuntu from will recognise the ubuntu partition and ask if you want to replace that with a new one. (this will delete all your old files along with the OS). The other options it will give you will be to replace both windows and your old ubuntu, or to leave both of them and make a new partition for the new ubuntu.
    – Rabbit
    Jan 29, 2015 at 13:50
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It would be very difficult for a non-expert to install 64-bit Ubuntu over 32-bit without losing files.

So it is strongly recommended to back up your files.

As for dual boot of 32-bit and 64-bit it is possible but in my opinion, not effective in the long run in terms of hard disk space and hardware performance, because you will have to resize partitions or remove 32-bit Ubuntu sooner or later.

You do have separate partitions for Ubuntu.Ubuntu always sits in another partition than Windows. It is never inside Windows.

So the best thing you can do is to backup files (both Ubuntu and Windows files for being more confident), and make a clean install of Ubuntu 64-bit by removing 32-bit version.

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  • I dont have a separate partition for ubuntu. I could see the ubutu as a program in programs in control panel. Shall i directly uninstall from there? Will it do any harm to my other drives? is backing up only downloads in ubuntu would be sufficient?
    – Vignesh I
    Jan 29, 2015 at 15:07
  • So you are using Virtual manager? It won't affect other drives as long as you do everything properly.Be sure to read some manuals about dual booting and partitioning on the web.In any case backup everything.
    – Muzaffar
    Jan 30, 2015 at 0:14

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