[SOLVED] Upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to Windows 10 64 bit

[Andrew_Werber]

I have Windows 7 32 bit on a desktop and I would like to upgrade to Windows 10 Home 64 bit. I ran the install tool program (I did not create media) and, after a very long time, got an error message. I did not write the whole message down, but it started with the word SYSTEM. I'm very sure the hardware will support Windows 10 (about 300 Gb free on C: drive, a 2 or 4 core Intel I5 running at about 3 GHz and 16 Gb memory). DO I need to upgrade Win 7 32 bit to 64 first? Thanks for any help.

 

[bignastyid]

You can not upgrade 32bit to 64 bit. It will require a full clean reinstall of windows.

 

[Andrew_Werber]

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question. Just to make things 100% clear:

1) Is it possible for me to upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit and then upgrade to Windows 10 64 bit? I'm asking that because I think that can be done legitimately for free.

2) Do I have to do something to 'prepare' my computer for a clean install, or do I just create a bootable media, put Windows 10 on that media, and set my BIOS to boot from that media? Also, can that be done for free using the media creation tool?

 

[bignastyid]

1. No, as I said you can't upgrade 32-bit to 64-bit.
2. If you have any other drives in the system you'll want to disconnect them before the install. Install can be done for free.

Do you have your win 7 product key?

Guide for a clean install of win 10.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[USAFRet]

Is it possible for me to upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit

As above, any change from 32bit to 64bit is a full reinstall. Win 7 -> Win 7, or Win 7 -> Win 10. No difference.
Full reinstall.

 

[Andrew_Werber]

As above, any change from 32bit to 64bit is a full reinstall. Win 7 -> Win 7, or Win 7 -> Win 10. No difference.
Full reinstall.

Thank you again. I cannot find my Windows 7 disc. I think I had tis computer built at a local electronics store, and I guess they did not give me the product key.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you again. I cannot find my Windows 7 disc. I think I had tis computer built at a local electronics store, and I guess they did not give me the product key.

Assuming the system still runs, Belarc Advisor can possibly extract the current Windows license key.
https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor

 

[Andrew_Werber]

Assuming the system still runs, Belarc Advisor can possibly extract the current Windows license key.
https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor

I set things up and started a clean install, and got the following error when I got to the screen where you select the disk to be used:

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. the selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI system, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

I did a bit of Googling on this, but I'm unsure how to deal with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

I set things up and started a clean install, and got the following error when I got to the screen where you select the disk to be used:

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. the selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI system, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

I did a bit of Googling on this, but I'm unsure how to deal with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is this the ONLY drive physically connected?
Did you delete all existing partitions on the drive?

 

[Andrew_Werber]

I got the install to work after deleting the partition.