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XP to Win7, hardware says 64 bit, win upgrade adviser says 32 bit
Emachines desktop T6532 with 3mb ram running win xp media center (32 bit). Want to upgrade to win7.
I ran some sort of MS analysis (can't remember the name) on the machine and it said it would run win7.
Invoice from machine and hardware scan using CPU-2 says the machine has a 64 bit processor. Amd Athlon 64 3500t.
Win upgrade adviser says:
"You'll need to perform a custom installation of 32 bit windows 7 and then re-install programs. Back up files before beginning."
I have windows 7 home premium upgrade which has both the 32 bit and 64 bit discs in the box.
This machine is in my shop and I use it for listening to streaming radio and surfing the web. It has some pictures I need to save but beyond that the only program that I use is firefox. When it was used as my primary desktop in the house it's had a boat load of stuff loaded on it over the years and I'd like to format the drive during the win7 upgrade process.
Iv'e been reading around on the MS website about making the leap from xp to win7 and understand that I will need to do a custom or clean install and that I will lose all of my files/programs/settings in the process. I'll use the win transfer utility to pull the picture files off and then re-install under win7. I have printed off the 17 page upgrade process from the MS site so I'll have when I do the deed.
I have run into what may or may not be a conflict that I'd like to get some input on before I get into this thing.
I'd like to do the win7 64 bit upgrade if possible and the processor appears to be rated for it but the adviser says I have to do a 32 bit install. Is there something else hardware wise that's preventing a 64 bit upgrade or is the adviser maybe just seeing the 32 bit xp OS and saying a 32 bit upgrade has to be done?
Thanks