Win8 upgrade download gives x86 not x64 from upgrade advisor


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Well I went to purchase an upgrade license for my 64-bit machine through the windows 8 upgrade advisor... of course it gave me the $39.99 upgrade price for win8 pro... paid for it, did the download, reinstalled the OS from a USB drive... and now I am running a 32-bit OS... looked at the ISO image its almost a GB smaller then my 64-bit ISO of windows 8 pro... why would they give me a 32-bit download for a 64-bit OS upgrade? I'm just confused now

edit:

well this just grindes my gears... I tried to use my other win8 pro image to install the x64 version and it tells me my key is invalid... that ISO came from MSDN, but it should be a retail image according to MSDN

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They keys don't care about 32 or 64 bit. If the 64-bit ISO is saying it's not a valid key then either something is wrong with the key or wrong with the ISO.

Are 110% sure you're using the right key and haven't transposed something?

In that vein make sure you have the right ISO.

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Hope you are not installing Windows 8 using the upgrade key on a blank hard disk.

that wouldn't make a difference with the version the upgrade advisor downloaded, as it is downloaded from inside windows

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that wouldn't make a difference with the version the upgrade advisor downloaded, as it is downloaded from inside windows

They are referring to the key...but it shouldn't show the key as invalid...it would just prevent activation, but allow the install.

You can contact MS. If they verify that the key is legit and only for 32 bit, I'm pretty sure they can exchange you the new key for 66 bit version.

Keys are for the SKU, not for the architecture. So the same key will work for 32-bit and 64-bit.

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I have a feeling the MSDN ISO has something different about it that doesn't like the key MS gave through the upgrade advisor, the ISO checksum even for the 32-bit pro version from MSDN doesn't match

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I have a feeling the MSDN ISO has something different about it that doesn't like the key MS gave through the upgrade advisor, the ISO checksum even for the 32-bit pro version from MSDN doesn't match

The MSDN version definitely works with the upgrade key and the same key works for both 32bit and 64bit installs. There must be something else going on here.

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I have a feeling the MSDN ISO has something different about it that doesn't like the key MS gave through the upgrade advisor, the ISO checksum even for the 32-bit pro version from MSDN doesn't match

My Technet x64 8 Pro image HASH is:

SHA-1: 79ED9958CF1690DD8A60A0B1B15F5DCC76C8E625

MD5: 1C9D3FBCD725E79EF693059EA38F4447

EDIT - Same HASH as MSDN

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I have used the upgrade advisor to download the image and install it on my machine and it IS x64. Don't be fooled by the size of the images. Verify that you have x64 installed by pressing Win Key + X on your keyboard, then selecting System. It will open up System Information and if it says 64-bit Operating System beside System type, then you are fine.

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Can't you log into the upgrade advisor website and download the relevant images again?

I didn't even know there was a website? I just did everything through the app

I have used the upgrade advisor to download the image and install it on my machine and it IS x64. Don't be fooled by the size of the images. Verify that you have x64 installed by pressing Win Key + X on your keyboard, then selecting System. It will open up System Information and if it says 64-bit Operating System beside System type, then you are fine.

it's not x64, I have 12GB of ram, and only 3.5 is showing up on the computer info, and nothing in task manager is showing up as "*32", trust me it installed as x86 I have two other systems running x64 windows 8 right now, that is why I am so confused... the others where retail installs (MSDN license for testing our software we write), this was the only upgrade advisor one that I did...

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Use the MSDN images. Just make sure to have a valid OS installed first. You will be able to do a clean install of the 64-bit OS from that media.

Like I said above, that didn't work, it told me it's an invalid key and yes this was an upgrade install with windows 7 already on the drive

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Like I said above, that didn't work, it told me it's an invalid key and yes this was an upgrade install with windows 7 already on the drive

If the MSDN image matches the checksum and is rejecting the key then something is wrong with the key

That image will accept the upgrade keys just fine.

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found someone else posted a link to the windows 8 setup executable to redownload the image... ran through that and I got a different image that was a lot larger then the previous one and installs as x64... still confused on what happened the first time that I got x86 images

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I'm guessing the first time you ran it, it was on an x86 OS, and the second time it was on an x64 OS. IIRC it detects the architecture and downloads based on that.

no, if you read what I wrote I ran it on an x64 UEFI booting Windows 7 machine... I reran it on the same machine after restoring the backup image I had of windows 7

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Actually you said that it was a 64-bit machine and didn't mention UEFI at all until this most recent post.

That's why I brought that up since a lot of people still run 32-bit OS's on machines (even those capable of 64-bit) these days. The upgrade adviser as I mentioned is supposed to pick up the current OS architecture and download based off that.

So sounds like it was just a weird glitch where it thought it was a 32-bit OS or something similar for some reason.

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The download from Microsoft.com is a smaller size than the MSDN/Technet Download due to it being an Upgrade Copy and NOT a Clean Install Copy and will indeed download X64 if you have an X64 Copy of the Previous Operating System that is currently installed when you Download Windows 8.

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The download from Microsoft.com is a smaller size than the MSDN/Technet Download due to it being an Upgrade Copy and NOT a Clean Install Copy and will indeed download X64 if you have an X64 Copy of the Previous Operating System that is currently installed when you Download Windows 8.

Actually it can do a clean install just fine. That's been proven over and over again. A full install...now that's a different story...and based on the key and a few reg entries.

Also the poster states that they are using an x64 OS and that for some reason it errored and gave them the x86 version instead. All of that info is already included in prior posts. :)

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Actually it can do a clean install just fine. That's been proven over and over again. A full install...now that's a different story...and based on the key and a few reg entries.

Also the poster states that they are using an x64 OS and that for some reason it errored and gave them the x86 version instead. All of that info is already included in prior posts. :)

it can do a full intall, i put in a new drive, booted the upgrade iso off dvd and installed a clean copy without changing anything

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it can do a full intall, i put in a new drive, booted the upgrade iso off dvd and installed a clean copy without changing anything

That's a clean install.

Full install is from the install media...on a completely blank system without any sort of prior OS, without doing any of the various tweaks.

That's what I was referring to...it's still an upgrade install...but can be done as a clean install by formatting the drive. :)

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That's a clean install.

Full install is from the install media...on a completely blank system without any sort of prior OS, without doing any of the various tweaks.

That's what I was referring to...it's still an upgrade install...but can be done as a clean install by formatting the drive. :)

there wasnt a prior os on the hdd , and it was an iso made from the media from the uprade assistant on a brand new drive without doing any tweaks
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