[Road Runner]

Ok....This has come up before with me with several different DEAD COMPUTERS I have acquired...been given...or bought to tinker with.......

Most have had a COA on the back that told me which OS was installed......but as we get into the machines that could have had 32 or 64 bit OS installed I dont know how to find out when I get them back up and ready to reload.......

One machine was a Dell and they had a nice site I could enter the serial # and get system specs........guess what....32 or 64 bit was not mentioned

Today I am working with an Acer That is Vista Home Premium OEM per the COA.......but is is 32 or 64 bit ????

I enter the SN at acer and I get the Name of the person I bought it from and when the warranty ended.......for more information thay want me to pay for a support ticket......

Any advice appreciated.....I have researched this online......but all the answers seem to be for when you have a windows bootable pc

Beep Beep

RR

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Hello Road Runner,


You could try taking out the HDD and booting it on another machine. You should be able to see whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit via Control Panel > System.

Failing that, if you can get the computer to boot on a LiveCD version of Linux (something like Puppy Linux), you should be able to see the folder structure. If you see a folder named "Program Files(x86)", then it's running on a 64-bit version of Vista.


I hope that helps,
Nahumi

Edited by Nahumi, 23 July 2011 - 04:16 PM.

[Nahumi]

Hello Road Runner,


You could try taking out the HDD and booting it on another machine. You should be able to see whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit via Control Panel > System.

Failing that, if you can get the computer to boot on a LiveCD version of Linux (something like Puppy Linux), you should be able to see the folder structure. If you see a folder named "Program Files(x86)", then it's running on a 64-bit version of Vista.


I hope that helps,
Nahumi

Edited by Nahumi, 23 July 2011 - 04:16 PM.

[Road Runner]

Good Advice Nahumi.

My normal procedure on a "discarded dead" machine was to put DBAN or the like in and wipe the drive to get ready for a fresh OS and then figure out the bugs.......

Now it seems when I have a non booting machine it makes sense to boot with linux and see if there is an x86 folder.......BEFORE I WIPE ...and then wonder if it is 32 or 64.........I should have known that.......but my way of doing things came from the xp era when 64 bit consumer machines were almost non existence.....

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and teach this old set in his ways dog a new trick

Sincerely

RR