Upgrade Windows 7 (32-bit) to (x64-bit) without Losing Data

Windows 7 is an operating system that is widely used by users. This is a very fun part of a job. It’s no surprise that many users want to upgrade Windows OS 7 ver.32-bit to ver.x64-bit.

The benefits of use a x64-bit operating system are most apparent in performancing when you have a large amount of random access memory up to (RAM) installing on your PC or computer, typically 4 GB of RAM, up to 16 TB.

However, the maximum RAM limit for Windows 7 32-bit is 4GB. Here is an example from Microsoft.

I’m running windows 7 32-bit but I wan’t to upgrading to x64-bit. And I want to keep all my data and softwares very safe.

Can I upgrading Windows 7 operating system 32-bit to x64-bit without losing data? Will this cost me anything and is my product key still valid for windows 7 64 bit.

However, in all version and edition of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, Home/Pro/Ultimatea, and Enterprise), there is no “Upgrade” choose that can directly upgrading to x64-bit.

Therefore, you could consider use cleaning installer to install x64-bit operating system and then restore files you will using in the near future, so that you can upgrading Windows 7 32-bit to x64-bit without losing data.

The premise is that the current pc or computer is compatibility with 64-bit operating system.

Step I

Check the current hardware compatible

Check system type of your PC/computer

To make sure you can successfully work cleanning installer Windows 7 x64-bit, the first thing is to check the system type of your computer.

If the system type is x64-based PC, you can upgrading Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 7 x64-bit. If the system is x84-based PC, you cannot upgrade your Windows.

To check system type:

1. Please open the “Start” menu.
2. Searching for “System Information” and plese press “Enter“.
3. Look for System Type. If the system type is x64-based PC, you can upgrade Windows 7 (32-bit) to Windows 7 (x64-bit). If the system is x84-based PC, you cannot upgrade your Windows.

 

Important:
The system stype can also be displayed as follow. You just need to check if your computing support x64-bit processor.

If it is, you can perform Windows 7 32-bit upgrade to x64-bit.

• 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor.
• 32-bit operating system, x64-based processor.
• 32-bit operating system, x86-based processor.

Verify CPU and driver compatible

To further determine that you can upgrading Windows 7 32-bit to x64-bit without format, you need to verify for CPU compatible and drivers compatible.

Please, to check “CPU” compatibility, and you can download Coreinfo from Microsoft, then see if the processor include Physical Address Extension (PAE), No-eXecute (NX), Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2), CMPXCHG16b (CX16).

To make it, type coreinfo in the command line window and press Enter, then hit “Ctrl + F” and type PAE, NX, SSE2, CX16 one by one.

To check driver (eg: graphics and sound card) compatible, you can go to device manufacturer support website and see if you can find x64-bit versions of the drivers.

After checking these compatibility, you may already know if your computer is compatible with Windows 7 64-bit system. If it is, please continue to see below and learn how to upgrade Windows 7 32-bit to x64-bit without losing data.

Step 2

Backup your computer to protect data and system

Before your upgrade operations system Windows 7 (32-bit), you still need to make a system image backup for your PC or computer.

A trust and reliable backup and restore software makes thing simple, here I strongly recommend you using AOMEI Backupper Standard to backup system and then restore system backup when needed.

Also, it allows you to restore files from backup in the event of disaster. And you still can using it to schedule for backup system after upgrading, and this process is automatic.

You just need to set backup settings for it, such as, daily/weekly/monthly plus full/incremental/differential backup. It can be the last resort to save your computer when it’s unbootable. To unlock all the useful features, please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional.

In the first of place, click the “download button” below to install AOMEI Backupper Standard on your computer.

Also, you need to prepare an external hard drive or USB drive to store backup image, which greatly reduces the data loss due to computer failure, suchas, system crash, disk failure.

1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, then you will see its deep-blue interface. And please, Click Backup > System Backup subsequently to start the system backup process.
2. AOMEI Backupper will automatic choose the operating system and boot-realted partition(s) required to starting OS Windows. Here, you only need to select a destination path for your backup. Then, click “Start Backup“.

Important

• For destination path, you can backup to external hard drive, USB drive, cloud drive, NAS, etc. In a simple word, as long as the device can be detected by your computer, you can use it as the destination path.
• It’s suggested to create a bootable media, either USB or CD/DVD, so you can restore your computer when it’s unbootable.

STEP 3

Upgrade Windows 7 (32-bit) to (x64-bit) free “Clean Install“. To ensure Windows 7 (32-bit) can be upgrading to (x64-bit), you need an installer media for assistance.

Therefore, please creating an installation media for Windows first, and then clean install 64-bit operating system with given steps.

Then, let’s get starting to burn ISO image’s file to USB flash drive with this tool.

1. Open Windows 7 USB DVD download tool, and click “Browse” to find your ISO image files, then click Next.
2. Choose USB as your media type.
3. Insert USB flash drive and select it, then click Begin copying. And this tool will format your USB flash drive first, then create bootable USB device. Thus, you need to backup USB first if there is something important.

Upgrade Windows 7 (32-bit) to (x64-bit) step by step

1. Plug in your USB flash drive and set boot priority to this drive in BIOS, then restart your computer and press any key to boot from it.
2. Wait for Windows 7 installation files to load, then you will see the main interface. Set up the language and other preference, and click Install Now in the next window.
3. Accept the license terms and click Next.
4. Select Windows 7 installation type: Custom.
5. Click Drive Options and delete system partition & other operating system related partition. After that, select the unallocated space to install 64-bit Windows 7 and wait for the final result.

If the system partition is big enough to install Windows 7 64 bit, you do not need to delete system partition and other operating system related partition. You can use the existing system partition to clean install your Windows.

The previous Windows is stored on Windows.old folder on the current system partition, it gives you a chance to restore Windows from it and go back to previous status.

In addition, it’s suggested to keep this softwares installer on your pc or computer to protect data and system continuously by its powerful feature, such as, schedule backup.

Some of mentioned features are only availble on the AOMEI Backupper Professional or advanced version.