Windows 7 - 32bit or 64bit?


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There is no separate 32-bit and 64-bit BIOS, so you should be fine. If your system isn't 64-bit capable the Windows installer won't even load so there's nothing to worry.

Just to be absolutely sure, I downloaded the two Toshiba files in question and the ROM images in them are identical (in other words, it's the same file). The only thing that is different is the software that is used to transfer the ROM image into the actual chip, presumably because the program needs direct access to the hardware and wouldn't get that if you ran the 32-bit version in the 32-bit emulator that is part of 64-bit Windows.

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There is no separate 32-bit and 64-bit BIOS, so you should be fine. If your system isn't 64-bit capable the Windows installer won't even load so there's nothing to worry.

Just to be absolutely sure, I downloaded the two Toshiba files in question and the ROM images in them are identical (in other words, it's the same file). The only thing that is different is the software that is used to transfer the ROM image into the actual chip, presumably because the program needs direct access to the hardware and wouldn't get that if you ran the 32-bit version in the 32-bit emulator that is part of 64-bit Windows.

Hi hdood

Thanks for your response.

So as I already have the Windows 7 64bit RC and my system is 64bit capable, I can go ahead and install the 64bit W7 RC without first flashing the BIOS with the 64bit BIOS that you have seen on the Toshiba download page?

If that is the case, then why is there a 32bit and 64bit BIOS downloads?

Regards

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If that is the case, then why is there a 32bit and 64bit BIOS downloads?

He explained that in his post. Basically the BIOS image file exactly the same in both cases. However the installer software has both a 32bit and 64bit counterpart. This is because when access the BIOS rom from a 64bit OS you need to be running a 64bit application (in this case the installer). This does not change the image that is being sent to the BIOS though.

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I have found hardware and software that is ok under 32 but will not work under 64. Cardreader Magix software has a problem with 64 as does the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, ironic that one NO 64 drivers.

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Hi hdood

Thanks for your response.

So as I already have the Windows 7 64bit RC and my system is 64bit capable, I can go ahead and install the 64bit W7 RC without first flashing the BIOS with the 64bit BIOS that you have seen on the Toshiba download page?

Yep! You don't ever need to touch your BIOS unless it's to fix a specific bug you're having problems with.

If that is the case, then why is there a 32bit and 64bit BIOS downloads?

Because a 64-bit OS can't run 32-bit programs directly.

When you have a 64-bit version of Windows installed and run a 32-bit program, that program is then running inside an emulator that emulates a 32-bit environment. The emulation is mostly complete, but lacks the ability to interface directly with the kernel (which is 64-bit) and hardware. The BIOS update tool needs to be able to do this, and thus will not work.

The solution is to have a separate version of the update tool for the 64-bit OS, so that it can skip the whole emulation layer. If there wasn't one, users with 64-bit Windows would not be able to update their BIOS.

In other words, it's only the tool that writes the .rom file to the physical chip inside the machine that is 32-bit or 64-bit. The .rom file itself is the same with both.

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Hi

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my relentless flood of questions about the 32bit and 64bit BIOS' and OS'.

Yes, I've finally got it and I can only say in my defence that I was a wee bit concerned about damaging my system.

Sorry it took soooo long. :)

Thanks again for your patience.

Regards

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this has been answered a few times but just to throw in my 2cents, I personally think the 32bit/64bit choice is solved by how much RAM the system has. less than 4gb - 32bit, 4gb or more - 64bit.

it really is that simple.

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I would go with 64 bit. I am, I downloaded Win 7 RC 64BIt last night around 2330 and I'm just waiting for my 8 Gb of Crucial Balistix memory to arrive before I install it. I have used both flavors during this testing phase, and preferred 64bit. I believe it is also more secure.

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Has anyone installed W7 using bootcamp? Any experiences to share?

Yes, I have a Mac Pro and I installed Windows 7 x64 on it using bootcamp. Everything works fine, only standby doesn't. You will also need a customized msi package for bootcamp. A user on Macrumors edited the original Apple msi file to be compatible with Win7. Apart from that all I can say is that Windows 7 is my OS of choice.

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Yes, I have a Mac Pro and I installed Windows 7 x64 on it using bootcamp. Everything works fine, only standby doesn't. You will also need a customized msi package for bootcamp. A user on Macrumors edited the original Apple msi file to be compatible with Win7. Apart from that all I can say is that Windows 7 is my OS of choice.

Excellent, thanks a lot.

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this has been answered a few times but just to throw in my 2cents, I personally think the 32bit/64bit choice is solved by how much RAM the system has. less than 4gb - 32bit, 4gb or more - 64bit.

it really is that simple.

Agreed, especially since I believe 64-bit versions of Windows use more RAM than their 32-bit counterparts.

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Arg! please stop spouting the misinformed crap about 64bit only being for more ram, it's really getting old. I'm not going to bother to type out the differences again, if you really want to know then use google (or search for some of my other posts on neowin)

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my pc is on dual boot rite now

winxp 32 bit & win7 32bit

probably wanna try win7 64bit after read few comments here

just wanna know,will it have a conflict wit my 32bit winxp ?

thx :)

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By using a 64bit operating system, not only do you get the benefit from native 64bit applications (and nearly no problems with 32bit ones), you'll be able to use extra CPU instruction sets because of the limitation of 32bit.

64bit is the future.

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I wonder if they'll ever try making a 64-bit BIOS....

Nothing to be gained by converting the BIOS to 64 or even 32-bit, afaik, BIOS are still 16-bit.

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This noob right here just installed Windows 7 RC 64bit (my first 64bit OS) and I will agree, it is alot faster than what I am used to. I have 4GB of ram and I don't think I will go back to 32bit again. Im using it as my primary OS and no issues.

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I see, for what reason did XP and Vista 32 bit only support 3,2 GB of 4 GB then?

They all support 4GB. The only difference is what's reported on the System CP. Vista/7 report actual memory, XP reports available memory. Your video card and motherboard resources are mapped into that 4GB of address space, so if you have a 512MB card you'll be missing at least that much... a 1GB video card will drop you to < 3GB on an x86 system.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think that the BIOS' are 32bit or 64bit. It should be the BIOS update tool which is different, you use the 64bit installer on x64 and the 32 bit on x86.

This must be his case. There are no 64-bit BIOSes. The BIOS only needs to address enough memory to initialize hardware and start a bootloader.

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I have found hardware and software that is ok under 32 but will not work under 64. Cardreader Magix software has a problem with 64 as does the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, ironic that one NO 64 drivers.

Did you try this for the fingerprint reader?

http://depmod-marreco.blogspot.com/2009/02...r-print-on.html

(There are no W7 drivers for the FP reader because Microsoft sold it to another company and they're not supporting it properly.)

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  • 3 weeks later...
I think the main advantage is that it allows you to use 4 GB ram or more (although i heard they hacked Windows 7 32 bit to support 4 GB ram, but not more)

I would be surprised if it couldn't easily be made to support more than 4GB by a couple of small changes in the kernel.

Nothing to be gained by converting the BIOS to 64 or even 32-bit, afaik, BIOS are still 16-bit.

Check EFI / UEFI, a lot of the newer BIOSes are moving away from the older legacy 16-bit. :( Although the CPU starts up in 16-bit mode the very first thing my BIOS does is jump to a routine to switch to 32-bit protected mode. IIRC there are also some 64-bit PEs in there too!

They all support 4GB. The only difference is what's reported on the System CP. Vista/7 report actual memory, XP reports available memory. Your video card and motherboard resources are mapped into that 4GB of address space, so if you have a 512MB card you'll be missing at least that much... a 1GB video card will drop you to < 3GB on an x86 system.

Actually, pre XP SP2 supported re-mapping and use of all 4GB of RAM if you had the hardware to support it. Unfortunately there seemed to have been some badly written drivers that resulted in MS having to withdraw it in SP2 and later.

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I had the 32-bit version of Build 7000, then the x64 versions of Builds 7068 and 7077, now I have 7100 x64 installed and still no problems, and this is the first time i've used a 64-bit OS. I find it blazing fast, and I too only have 2GB of RAM.

Same, but I have 4gb.

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