Hi
Guys - just wanted to join this thread but cannot offer any personal advice - I'm about to upgrade a laptop to Windows 7 which has my iTunes program sync to both my older iPod Touch & my iPad2, so will have to 'face' the same situation.
I hope that others w/ PCs who have done this process will respond; the Apple help link looks pretty specific and clear but always reassuring to hear from others who have actually gone through the transition -
Concerning the USB vs. Firewire (i.e. IEEE 1394) transfer rates, the issue is a little more complicated that explained by the MUCH faster rate of Firewire (which is usually not a PC standard offered on most machines). Keep in mind that USB has gone through 3 standards, i.e. 1.1, 2.0, & 3.0, the corresponding transmission rates are 12 Mbps, 480 Mbps, and nearly 5 Gbps, respectively; most recent PC systems have at least USB 2.0 (which is pretty fast!) - Firewire has two standards, i.e. 400 & 800 Mbps, so MUCH overlap; therefore does not make a difference if one is using USB 2.0 or 3.0, the latter being the FASTEST transfer rate.
Well, let's hope we all get some GOOD directives -