trying to restore system winimage 64bit to 32 bit system

Hello, here’s my situation. I have 2 dell laptops, one is 32 bit (running win 7 ultimate), the other is a 64 bit (inspiron 14R) (was) running win 7 home premium. I’m currently overseas and the HD died on the 64 bit. Dell Thailand came and installed a new HD. BUT I have no win7 disk for that pc. I thought I was safe because I backed up all my files, etc (using easeus sw) and I had made a win7 restore disk, and I had a system image (winimage) that I could restore.

In my silliness, I thought I needed to put an OS on the pc before I could restore the winimage. I had forgotten that one pc is 32 bit and the other 64 bit. My actions and problems are…

- Installed win7 ultimate 32 bit on the 64 bit pc
- After successful installation tried to do a restore from the winimage (following instructs from these forums). The msg I get is: ‘the selected system image cannot be restored in this recovery environment’ is this because the winimage was made from a 64 bit system and I am trying to restore it to a 32 bit??
- Then I tried to use the restore disk I made for the 64 bit pc. It bombed with error msg: ‘error 4001100200001012’

I have researched online these 2 msgs and I get nowhere. The new HD is exactly the same size as the old HD. I even uninstalled the 32 bit win7 and tried to use the 64 bit recovery disk. No go. I tried to use the recovery disk from the 32 bit pc. It worked (I read online that it makes no difference which pc made the recovery disk), but I was still not able to restore my win image.

I really don’t want to reinstall all the programs (a lot) on the pc again and set up all my preferences. On the dell website I submitted the form asking that they send me the win7 OS disk to my USA address. I should be back in the US in a few months. I haven’t heard from dell so don’t even know if they will send it to me.

That’s the saga, my more specific questions would be:

- Does it make a difference that the current windows on the 64 bit pc is 32 bit and I’m trying to restore a 64 bit system image made from windows itself? Should I be able to do this?
- If so, any advice on how to do this?
- if i cannot do this, any issues with running the 32 bit win 7 ultimate on the 64 bit laptop? i have some 64 bit sw, must i now use 32 bit sw?

Thanks in advance
z

hello vistaking,
thank you for you quick response! now, if i understand you, you are saying i can:
- download the 64bit win 7 home premium & use my prod key to install it? it will automatically 'install' over the 32 bit win ultimate?
- & then i can do the system image restore so i don't need to reinstall all the programs again?
thanks,
z

sorry, i'm not understanding you.
as i write i am downloading win7 home premium x64 - which is what was originally on the dell 64bit & for which i have the prod key.
ultimately what i would like is to get 64 bit sw back on the 64 bit pc & THEN use my winimage of that same pc (before the HD died) to restore it the way it was. is this possible?

you say i need to format the pc. the pc was originally 64 bit when it was shipped from dell. so are you saying that because i loaded 32 bit win7 on it, i need to reformat it now (any tutorials you know to help with this?)

after i do the reformat, i would need to do a clean install from the file i am now downloading?

then after i do the clean install i should theoretically be able to do the restore from the winimage?
thanks

hi again.
perhaps i am misunderstanding you. this is what i have done:
- had a 64 bit dell laptop running win7 home premium x64
- the HD died & dell installed a new one
- i installed 32 bit win7 ultimate.
- tried to restore winimage so i don't need to restore all programs/settings. it didn't work
- assuming/hoping/thinking that if i get the PC back to 64bit OS, the winimage restore will work
- the winimage was made on the dell before the HD died (hw 64bit & win7 64 bit). i made the winimage using the windows software.
thanks for your patience

yes, in my initial posting i wrote:

Installed Windows 7 ultimate 32 bit on the 64 bit pc
- After successful installation tried to do a restore from the winimage (following instructs from these forums). The msg I get is: ‘the selected system image cannot be restored in this recovery environment’
is this because the winimage was made from a 64 bit system and I am trying to restore it to a 32 bit??
- Then I tried to use the restore disk I made for the 64 bit pc. It bombed with error msg: ‘error 4001100200001012’

I have researched online these 2 msgs and I get nowhere. The new HD is exactly the same size as the old HD. I even uninstalled the 32 bit Windows 7 and tried to use the 64 bit recovery disk. No go.

the winimage would not be restored. i faithfully followed the instructs from these forums.

thanks.