Serious upgrade problem! My computer previously was 64 bit and now is 32 bit.

[Bill Stanley]

I have thought about the situation and probably a clean install is best. 
  As for the upgrade problem, I think that the people at Canonical had 
better look into this.

Now the question I pose is this.

My computer has 8 GB of memory (thus needing a 64 bit OS) and has two 
hard drives.  The original HD is 1 TB and is entirely devoted to Win 7 
(I do not want to change this at all).  The other is 500 GB and is for 
Linux and There is space for 2 additional HDs.

If I entirely erase the Linux HD and do a clean install, what is the 
best way to do the partitioning?  I have read somewhere that I do not 
need a /boot partition.  Should I have /boot partition and if so, how 
big should it be?  How big should the swap partition be?  I also have 
read that if I have a partition dedicated to /home I would not need to 
change it when doing a clean reinstall.  Is it advisable to have a 
separate /home partition and how big should it be.  Of course the rest 
of the OS would be on whatever is left over (at /root I believe?) .

Bill Stanley