is this hardware 32 bit or 64 bit?

[jamalsabs]

Hello Everyone,

My friend took his computer to a tech store a while ago to get it fixed and they replaced the HDD. Well his computer has been giving him problems again so he asked me to fix it.

Well I just determined that the HDD was failing again, I verified this using PC-Doctor, but all the other hardware components are fine.

I just installed a 64 bit version of Windows Vista Home Basic on his computer and everything works fine.

My Question is, is there a way to determine whether hardware in a system is 64 bit compatible without looking at My Computer->Properties->System (because that would just show the version I installed, not necessarily the version which this system can handle). I looked up the model and it says it came in 32-bit but hoping maybe there is something I have overlooked that someone can tell me. Like maybe looking up the hardware ID or something? :s

Oh I should probably mention that it is an Acer Aspire 7735Z

 

[Sakkura]

I just installed a 64 bit version of Windows Vista Home Basic on his computer and everything works fine.

That is conclusive proof that his hardware is 64-bit. 64-bit Windows does not run on 32-bit hardware. At all.

Besides, the switch to 64-bit hardware happened many years ago for PCs. Switching to 64-bit software has taken a lot longer since 32-bit software runs fine on 64-bit hardware.

 

[jamalsabs]

I just installed a 64 bit version of Windows Vista Home Basic on his computer and everything works fine.

That is conclusive proof that his hardware is 64-bit. 64-bit Windows does not run on 32-bit hardware. At all.

Besides, the switch to 64-bit hardware happened many years ago for PCs. Switching to 64-bit software has taken a lot longer since 32-bit software runs fine on 64-bit hardware.

Ok I understand, but I am still curious if there is a way to tell explicitly like through the bios, or hardware IDs, or something? Thats what I would really like to know

 

[Sakkura]

You can check what CPU he has in BIOS or through a program like CPU-Z, and then google it to check its features.

Edit: Microsoft also has a guide on this page (under How do I tell if my computer can run a 64-bit version of Windows?) to how you could check 64-bit compatibility in general.