Did I install my ram correctly, can someone help?

I have both Windows XP and Windows 7 on my computer, I added more ram when I installed windows 7 (I went from 2gigs to 6gigs). Now when I use plugins I'm able to use more when using windows xp than when I use windows 7. Keep in mind that windows xp is only seeing 3.25gigs of the total 6gigs. When I bought the ram someone told me to stagger them so I have them like this: slot 1 - OCZ 2GB DIMM 16x(128Mx8) PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-24-6-3) slot 2 - Corsair 1GB DIMM 16x(64Mx8) PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-22-6-3) slot 3 - OCZ 2GB DIMM 16x(128Mx8) PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-24-6-3) slot 4 - Corsair 1GB DIMM 16x(64Mx8) PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-22-6-3) Is this the correct way to install them? Should I have both the 2gig sticks next to each other? Or does it matter? I appreciate any help, thanks.

It will depend upon your particular Mobo / chipset, so call the manufacturer or check your manual. Usually, the setup is as you have it, the channels are staggered, but not always. Similar capacity sticks need to be in the same channel as each other. As a general rule, it's a bad idea to use more than one type or brand, as optimum settings will be different for each, but if you don't overclock & your mobo isn't picky, you can get away with it. Also, you are running Win7-64, but not triple-channel ram? That's not exactly optimal.

Is win7 x64? If not windoze cannot detect the extra ram.

You'll forgive but I think you can only have like sticks in the mobo. I would indeed try putting the different sticks in diff spots. You might already know this, but placement is key. I think though you'd have to have 2gb sticks in place of the 1gb sticks in order for you to get the right showing (1-2-4-8-etc 6 might not be a proper amount)

What mobo are you using? What does your bios report RAM wise during boot? I'm using an Asus P5Q mobo and only last week upgraded my rig with another 4GB of RAM (total now 8GB). The original RAM is Corsair 800 MHz PC6400 and the new RAM is Corsair 1066MHz PC8500. I have them staggered with the faster RAM in the odd slots and the slower in the even slots and all RAM running at 800MHz and it runs fine.

If the computer turns on, you installed the memory properly. Generally, on systems now, you can plug in the sticks in any slot. If you're motherboard shows two different colors of memory interface (ie: light blue and dark blue), you want to match the memory sticks and colors - this ensures your system is taking advantage of the dual-channel/interleaving goodness. If all 4 slots are the same color, don't worry about it, the memory controller is smart enough to figure it out (providing you have matched memory sticks). When DDR was first introduced, the motherboard/cpu memory bus was wider than the memory module bus, so to compensate you needed 2 matched memory sticks which were functionally treated as one larger memory stick (simplifying). Also, XP doesn't recognize or work with greater than 4GB of ram. The amount reported will fluctuate based on your computers installed hardware, but 3.25GB sounds normal.