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I have a laptop supports 64bit. I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 32 bit by a mistake I installed 32bit. Now I want to switch from 32 bit to 64 bit and a new version of Ubuntu 12.10 is also available so I want to install it.

Is there any easy way with out New Installation ?

I have a separate partition for Ubuntu of 40 Gb size if I reinstall the new 64 bit version on it will it remove my applications and other stuff from the other partitions. Like /home partition and /data partition.

Also tell how to make backup.

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  • In your particular case it appears to be kinda-sorta-possible to switch from 32 to 64 bit during the upgrade from 12.04 to 12.10, although you likely will need to re-install the applications. See this question: askubuntu.com/questions/192980/… for the general outline of the idea. Note that I didn't test it, it's just an idea. Make sure you have backups of your data.
    – Sergey
    Nov 14, 2012 at 5:36

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As far as I know there is no way by which you can convert a 32-Bit Ubuntu into 64-Bit without reinstalling the whole new 64-Bit operating system.
And there is no harm in using 32-bit Ubuntu unless you have more than 4Gb of RAM and you want to use maximum of it.
And if you really want to use 64-Bit then backup all your data and format your current 32-Bit version and install 64-Bit version.

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  • if you have UEFI boot issues and are using Ubuntu 32 bit, it's going to complain when you try to fix those issues. So that's another thing to watch out for.
    – George Stocker
    Feb 6, 2013 at 21:39
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  • You can make a backup using Deja-dup (it's in System Settings, under 'Backup').
  • There's nothing wrong with 32 bit unless you want to have > 4GB RAM
  • It's unlikely you can switch from 32-bit to 64-bit. Most of the system programs are made specifically for one architecture or the other.
  • If you install a different version on a separate partition, your other partitions will be unchanged.
  • If you install 12.10 on a different partition, you can set it to use your same home partition. This way, your personal files and configurations will not have to be redone. You'll still need to redownload your programs though.
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