Want to change a 7-64 PC to 7-32 PC.

OldChipper

Honorable
Sep 22, 2013
8
0
10,510
I want to change my PC win-7 pro 64 bit to Windows 7-32 bit. I already purchased the 32 bit OS software. I was going to reformat and then do a clean install. But I have quite a bit of data on the current drive. Which I can remove if I have to, but I have a new 1-TB WD hard drive, if I install this new drive, can I use the 64 bit as a second drive. I mean, will I be able to access the stuff on it using the 32 bit system.
Do I need to do anything to keep the 64 bit out of the way? Will I run into problems with both 32 and 64 in the same machine? Actually I was thinking of using one of those hard covers on the 64 bit drive and use it as an external drive.
BTW: PLEASE don't try to convince me to keep the 64 bit. I'm in my 70s and don't want to have to buy new programs that will work with 64 bit at my age! Plus all the other PC's are 32 bit.

 
Solution
You can still utilize 32-bit programs on Windows 64-bit....But if you insist....this is what I would do. Remove your current hard drive, install the 1TB WD hard drive and install Windows on the system. After registration and all updates are done - plug in your 2nd drive and copy the data from the old drive to the new drive (they are 100% compatible). After copying all the data and files over, I would recommend reformatting the drive (remove the partition using disk manager, create a new one) because there could be issues as to which hard drive it boots to.

Having 2 hard drives in the computer gives you the ability to backup your data to the 2nd drive - syncback free is a free program that will do it for you.
You can still utilize 32-bit programs on Windows 64-bit....But if you insist....this is what I would do. Remove your current hard drive, install the 1TB WD hard drive and install Windows on the system. After registration and all updates are done - plug in your 2nd drive and copy the data from the old drive to the new drive (they are 100% compatible). After copying all the data and files over, I would recommend reformatting the drive (remove the partition using disk manager, create a new one) because there could be issues as to which hard drive it boots to.

Having 2 hard drives in the computer gives you the ability to backup your data to the 2nd drive - syncback free is a free program that will do it for you.
 
Solution