How to tell what BIT os Is on the computer

[StreetHacker]

So I have a dead hard drive in a laptop with win vista HP..Now is it 32bit or 64bit? I dont know. I have tried looking up the specs online and sometimes I can find the info and most times I can not. Is there a easy way to find out if the OS is 64bit or 32bit? Remember HD is dead! cant hookit up to other computer to extract the key

 

[StreetHacker]

Yah the drive is shot cant hookit up via USB...I guess im going to have to just install Vista HP 32bit and if they key doesnt work then do 64bit..=(

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Yah the drive is shot cant hookit up via USB...I guess im going to have to just install Vista HP 32bit and if they key doesnt work then do 64bit..=(

If the drive is "shot" you are going to attempt to reinstall on a different drive correct?

 

[MobileTechie]

Yah the drive is shot cant hookit up via USB...I guess im going to have to just install Vista HP 32bit and if they key doesnt work then do 64bit..=(

I thought the licences were valid for either?

 

[Xander]

If the drive weren't shot, you'd just need to look for the presence of a "Program files (x86)" folder. No need to extract keys or anything.

And, yes, as Degresh says, install to a dummy drive to test.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Boot to the BIOS and look at how much RAM is listed.

 

[Mushin]

I think others have said it but since you are putting a new drive in... Just install 64 or 32 depending on how much ram and what you think would be best. But.... since it is an HP if you are hung up on it order the recovery discs.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Boot to the BIOS and look at how much RAM is listed.

That wouldn't be very conclusive...my laptop runs a 64 bit OS and it has 4GB of RAM installed. But I guess you have a point...if he were to boot to BIOS and see 6GB of RAM recognized he could assume(we all know how that goes) that there is a 64 bit OS installed.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

That wouldn't be very conclusive...my laptop runs a 64 bit OS and it has 4GB of RAM installed. But I guess you have a point...if he were to boot to BIOS and see 6GB of RAM recognized he could assume(we all know how that goes) that there is a 64 bit OS installed.

Well generally 32 bit only sees 3.75 GB's of RAM so my rule of thumb is if it has 4 GB's or more of RAM then it gets 64 bit OS.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Well generally 32 bit only sees 3.75 GB's of RAM so my rule of thumb is if it has 4 GB's or more of RAM then it gets 64 bit OS.

I gotcha. Either way it seems to be a guessing game at this point.

 

[Xander]

True, the RAM wouldn't be conclusive but if it had more than 4GB, it'd be pretty clear.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

It also wouldn't hurt anything to install 64 bit on it even if it only had 2 GB's of RAM as I believe just about if not all current processors can run 64 bit OS's

 

[TLE]

Well generally 32 bit only sees 3.75 GB's of RAM so my rule of thumb is if it has 4 GB's or more of RAM then it gets 64 bit OS.

Agreed, If it's got 3GB or less it get's x86, if it's 4GB or above I install x64.

 

[Vicenarian]

With Vista it's usually x86 anyway....don't really see a lot of x64 installs from OEMs

 

[Aescaepulus]

My $0.02

Depending on the brand of laptop, you can probably enter the model / serial number / service tag on the OEM support website and it may tell you the build configuration.

Otherwise, look at the CPU specs in the BIOS, if it's says Yes to it being 64bit capable and the RAM is 4GB or more, then installing 64bit OS shouldn't be an issue.

The last resort- stick a new HDD in there, try to boot the 64bit OS first, if it isn't compatible, it will prompt you that the OS isn't gonna fly, and you then proceed with the 32bit OS.