How do I know if I can run 64 bit OS?

J

johnnyb58

Member
I built my own computer years ago before Win7 and set it up with Vista 32 bit because at the time there weren’t many programs to run on 64 bit and none of the programs that I was using. I did try to buy everything compatible with 64 bit like the motherboard for sure, but I seem to remember there was something that I had to buy for my Vista to operate on 32 bit. It has been so long that I can no longer remember. Could it have been the memory?

It has a GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R motherboard which is switchable between 32 and 64 bit. I'll have to open it up to see what else I have in it. I did replace the video cards a few years ago with duel cards that I bought from a friend of mine who was heavy into gaming so I'm guessing that they are 64 bit compatible.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
The Core 2 line supports 64 bit environments. The motherboard doesn't care.
 
J

johnnyb58

Member
beers said:
The Core 2 line supports 64 bit environments. The motherboard doesn't care.
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OK I guess I'll have to see what processor I have in it. I used to have a list of all the parts that I bought for it, but can't find the list anymore. Thanks
 
J

johnnyb58

Member
So I just looked in the device manager which says I have Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 processor, but I can't tell if it is 64 bit.
 
silv55

silv55

Member
johnnyb58 said:
Thanks, OK that's good news. I just feel like I had to change something to make the computer 64 bit, but maybe it was the OS that I was thinking about.
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If you have 32bit and if you try to install 64bit OPS, it wont install at all,if you have 64Bit you can install 32bit.
 
J

johnnyb58

Member
Wow! I’ve been reading the Amazon Reviews about Windows 7 & 10 on and it has been suggested that Microsoft is quietly shutting down Win7 OEM installs so I may have to buy Windows 10. At first I could not find Windows 10 for sale on my old vista computer, but now it came right up with my Windows 10 computer. That’s kind of weird.

I guess I’m going to have to buy another hard drive to do a clean install and hopefully I can access my old files with the old drive still installed. I also need to do some research on what Hard drive to buy.
 
mistersprinkles

mistersprinkles

Active Member
Why do you need a new hard drive?

Just back up your files to a $10 USB thumb drive and do a clean install of Win 10.
You should have gone for the free upgrade that ended July 29th. Now you have to pay for it.

Your CPU is 64 bit. The entire Core 2 line is 64 bit.

One thing- you want at least 4GB of RAM to run a 64 bit OS. It just eats up more memory. If you have a 2GB machine you will want to upgrade to at least 4GB before going 64 bit.

You might also want to overclock your CPU as it is a bit old and you would benefit from the extra speed.
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
johnnyb58 said:
Wow! I’ve been reading the Amazon Reviews about Windows 7 & 10 on and it has been suggested that Microsoft is quietly shutting down Win7 OEM installs so I may have to buy Windows 10. At first I could not find Windows 10 for sale on my old vista computer, but now it came right up with my Windows 10 computer. That’s kind of weird.

I guess I’m going to have to buy another hard drive to do a clean install and hopefully I can access my old files with the old drive still installed. I also need to do some research on what Hard drive to buy.
Click to expand...
Windows 7 came out over 7 years ago, that's why Microsoft is trying to push people to install a newer OS.
 
J

johnnyb58

Member
mistersprinkles said:
Why do you need a new hard drive?

Just back up your files to a $10 USB thumb drive and do a clean install of Win 10.
You should have gone for the free upgrade that ended July 29th. Now you have to pay for it.

Your CPU is 64 bit. The entire Core 2 line is 64 bit.

One thing- you want at least 4GB of RAM to run a 64 bit OS. It just eats up more memory. If you have a 2GB machine you will want to upgrade to at least 4GB before going 64 bit.

You might also want to overclock your CPU as it is a bit old and you would benefit from the extra speed.
Click to expand...
Thanks I have 6 GB so I guess I'll have to check out upgrading the memory.

I've forgotten everything about overclocking because I never had a reason to use it so I'll have to review all that stuff. I am glad you mentioned it because I was wondering if the CPU was going to be fast enough.

I already ordered a hard drive because I've never got the backup thing mastered. I've even purchased programs to do it for me, but they never really worked correctly. I have a dozen or so hard drives from previous upgrades because every time I try backing up, I find out that I'm missing files. In fact I just discovered yesterday that I was missing about a thousand family photos that I backed up to a new Win7 computer a few years ago. I did manage to install the free Win10 upgrade on it and I know those files were on it before hand. I have no Idea what happened to those files after the installation and now I have to go through the stack of hard drives to find copies of those missing files.
 
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