[CentOS] MIgrate/Upgrade from Centos 5.4 32bit to Centos 5.4 64bit

[MHR]

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 11:24 AM, MHR <mhullrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 7:46 AM, Oliver Schulze L. <oliver at samera.com.py> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> It is posible to do a simple procedure to upgrade a Centos 5.4 32bits
>> (i686) to
>> a Centos 5.4 64bits(x32_64)?
>>
>> I was thinking about an upgrade or install without formating.
>>
>> I will have a current backup before doing it.
>>
>> Any advice/tips is welcome.
>>
>
> I *strongly* doubt it.  When you go from 32 to 64 bit systems, you are
> essentially replacing the kernel and (at least) about 90% of the
> standard libraries.  I am willing to bet that this mandates an
> installation.
>
> For the record, I've never tried it.  When I put CentOS on my machine,
> I already had a 64-bit CPU and I never seriously considered NOT using
> the 64-bit install.
>
> HTH.
>
> mhr
>

Sorry - PS:  IIRC, you don't _have_ to format your disks to install
over what's on them - check the installation options when you get that
far and read through them carefully.  You should be able to re-use
existing partitions, but I can't remember whether that *requires*
reformatting them - I've just always done that (reformat them).