Solved Win 8.1 32bit and 64 bit

[stuman]

G'day,

Windows 8.1 has now successfully been installed on the Samsung notebook mentioned a while ago which had Win 8 64 and 32 installed but that OS broke.
I installed the 32 bit version of the two available as I did not know any better.
I would now like to instal the 64 bit version in case it is required at a later date as I will not have access to the machine in the future.
Is this to be recommended?
Is it possible?
How is this done, please?
I put the 64 bit dvd in the optical drive and clicked on setup which resulted in a popup saying "this app cannot run on this PC".
Does the 64 bit installation include the attributes of the 32 bit as well?
Do I need to un-instal the 32 to enable the installation of the 64?
Hope someone can help, please.
Cheers,
stuman.

 

[TechnoMage]

Well, if you try to run the 64 bit Setup program on the Installation DVD, from within 32 bit Windows, the message you got is exactly right.
You would be trying to perform a MISS-Operation.

You would have to boot up the PC with the 64 bit Setup program, and then tell it you want it to REFORMAT the disk, and THEN install the OS.

As for my own preference, I only use the 32 bit version of 8.1, because the 64 bit version is NOT Backward compatible and will not run any of the older programs that I use daily. Only the 32 bit version, will run the older DOS and 16 bit programs.
At least, that's been my own experience. Someone els's experience may vary.

Good Luck!
TechnoMage

 

[stuman]

G'day TechnoMage,

Many thanks for the info on Win8.1 64/32.

If a separate Unallocated drive was available on the Hard Drive, could the
64 bit be directed to that during installation instead of reformatting the
whole?
I understand from other discussions that 64bit is not backward compatable
with 32bit?

Tnaks again.
Cheers,
stuman.

 

[LMiller7]

A 64 bit OS will run most 32 bit software with no trouble at all. Which is good because there is a huge amount of 32 bit software out there that will never be updated. Of course there are exceptions. 16 bit software will not run at all on a 64 bit OS outside of a virtual machine.

 

[stuman]

G'day LMiller7,
Thanks for your reply. I think I will stick with 32bit for now as changing does not seem worth the effort.
Thanks again to all who helped.
Cheers,
stuman

 

[brooksndun]

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx

i hate this guys voice but..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IknbgnJLSRY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgiMzKb8dD0