We are using 32-bit versions of SQL Server on 64 Bit machines. We heard that due this version performance can be down. We want to move from 32 Bit to 64 Bit. Which method should we use? Attach/Deattach or Backup/Recovery?
Thanks in advance.
The database file format is independent of version. You can use either migration method
x64 can be slower under certain conditions: basically bad code. The execution plan cache and some other processes are no longer constrained by the 2GB user mode address space. So you can reduce your buffer pool (data cache) if the plan cache blows up.
Which is caused by bad code such not qualifiying tables, or using sp_OA% all over the place.
I would use attach & detach, because you do not want any access to your old database once you've started moving over to the new one. It's also a lot quicker to just detach the file and copy it over, rather than running a backup & restore process, so your downtime due to the upgrade should be shorter.