About 9 months ago I ordered a new computer with a dual core 64 bit Intel processor and Win XP 64 bit OS. I wanted to maximise the usage of RAM by Photoshop (up to 3GB) to speed things up, and I also included a fair amount of hard drive space (2x200GB WD hard drives plus 2x76GB Raptors).
It was my dream system of the day. I can actually burn 4gb+ on a DVD at a true 16x speed. It's the computer I want to use for all my photo editing work, including storage, printing and transfer of images to DVD.
But there's a huge snag. There are still no 64 bit drivers available for for my X-rite DTP94 colorimeter which I bought from ColorEyes, bundled with their software.
I find this huge delay in providing 64 bit drivers very strange. When I first enquired, I got 2 conflicting messages. One effectively said, 'there are no plans to develop 64 bit drivers. We have enough headaches with 32 bit drivers." Another reply immediately following, said in effect, 'we are expecting 64 bit drivers from X-Rite soon'.
It looks as though the first reply was spot on, and it puts me in a difficult situation. The obvious solution is to create a dual boot and use Win XP Pro (32 bit) for photo editing, but apparently this process only works when a more advanced OS is installed later. I've got the latest OS installed first. I tried booting up my system with a Win XP pro disc in the DVD drive and it just ignored it.
Now, I gather there are ways around this (if I've understood comments on Microsoft's website). If I take my computer back to the folks who assembled it, they should be able to install Win XP Pro (32 bit) on a spare hard drive and give me the option of choosing OS's when I boot up, but I'm reluctant to go to this trouble if, in a few weeks time, 64 bit drivers for the X-Rite DTP94 become available.
The last enquiry I sent to X-Rite on this matter was not answered.
9 months is a long tome to wait for a driver to be developed. A complete human being can be developed in that time, from conception to delivery.