In transitioning to 64-bit, I have two OSs installed on my desktop computer: WinXP-32 and Win7-64. As I use XP most of the time, I have been running BOINC under WinXP-32.

But, now, I'm using Win7-64 more and more. I would like to install BOINC there, too. My question is how do I go about doing that?

Will it download altogether new work units under Win7 (in which case, I would think there's no problem), or will it re-download and re-start the same work units that I interrupted when I left WinXP and booted Win7?

Should I do anything to distinguish the two installations when I install BOINC under Win7?

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you won't be able to share work from both OSes IIRC. What you can do is select "no new tasks" on your old OS. allow the WU's to finish or just abort the work there if you are in a hurry. Though you may be able to point your 7 BOINC data directory to the 32 data. I would do a new install with new work meant for your 64 bit OS

Install on your 7 OS making sure you pick the proper boinc version. Sometimes BOINC will pick the 32 bit version for you. Even though it won't matter for Seti, other projects run faster on the 64 bit version(some primegrid projects).

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Thanks, skildude. Good thoughts.

If I point BOINC-Win7 to a different data directory than I use for BOINC-WinXP, will this cause it to download different work units than are suspended under WinXP (and vice-versa)? If that's the case, then I can gradually wind down the WinXP projects.

I presume that there is still only one account and that credit for each BOINC version show up in the other, eventually, from the Web. Is this correct?

Thanks for the tip, too, about the 64-bit BOINC version.

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I'm not sure you'd be able to run the WU's from the different OS because your 64 bit OS may have a different Computer ID because its a different OS. So you can try it and see if it will find the work and see if it can run the work. If you see the WU's failing then suspend seti and kill BOINC. If it won't find the work then you'll need to install a separate instance of BOINC and data file in the Windows 7 default :/Program files/BOINC

IIRC I ran a 32 bit XP and updated to 64 bit XP. The WU's failed immediately. I assumed the failure was because the bit rate difference

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

...because your 64 bit OS may have a different Computer ID...

If I understand correctly, this seems like the cleanest way. Two different BOINC installations, two different BOINC data directories. As far as BOINC is concerned, two different computers.

But, that's OK. I don't need both BOINCs to work on the same WUs. In fact, from your experience, it sounds like I don't want this.

Rather, when I boot to a particular OS, BOINC would just resume where it left off with those OS-specific WUs. Then, if I knew that I wouldn't be using one of the OSs for a long stretch, I could say "No new tasks" and let it finish what it has before rebooting.

Is this right?

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Right. Just like two different computers. You would have to watch each in case you used one to long and not the other. The WUs might get too close to timeout but if you use both fairly often you shouldn't have a problem.

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PROUD MEMBER OF Team Starfire World BOINC

sound advice Perryjay

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Thanks very much, skildude and perryjay. I appreciate your taking the time to help.

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