Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows 7 > Windows 7 General Discussion > Setup exe is not a valid win32 app when installing windows7 from external drive

Setup exe is not a valid win32 app when installing windows7 from external drive

Forum Windows 7 : Windows 7 General Discussion - Setup exe is not a valid win32 app when installing windows7 from external drive

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perjohnnym   11-16-2009 at 04:59:58 PM

I just discovered my DVD/CD drive is not working when I attempted to launch the windows 7 iso file 64bit.
So I used isobuster to extract the files to an external harddrive ( over 300 gig). However when I try to run the setup.exe file, I get the message "setup.exe is not a valid win32 app" - not sure why? My pc has 4 gig RAM and has AMD Athlon 64 processor?

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The_Prophecy   11-16-2009 at 05:01:19 PM
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Are you trying to run the Setup.exe file for 64 bit Windows 7 from within a current 32 bit operating system?

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perjohnnym   11-16-2009 at 05:42:46 PM
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The system message "setup.exe is not a valid win32 app" seems to imply exactly that, but I am not sure. I thought that I had a 64bit operating system based on the processor listed in "system properties" - it had the processor as AMD Athlon 64 processor. Is there any other way to determine whether I have a 32bit or 64bit operating system? - thanks.

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perjohnnym   11-16-2009 at 06:04:23 PM
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The_Prophecy wrote :

Are you trying to run the Setup.exe file for 64 bit Windows 7 from within a current 32 bit operating system?



The system message "setup.exe is not a valid win32 app" seems to imply exactly that, but I am not sure. I thought that I had a 64bit operating system based on the processor listed in "system properties" - it had the processor as AMD Athlon 64 processor. Is there any other way to determine whether I have a 32bit or 64bit operating system? - thanks.

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Scotteq   11-16-2009 at 07:48:26 PM
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The error you are experiencinv is not a function of your processor. It is a matter of which (software) operating system is currently on your computer. it is caused by you attempting to load a 64 bit installation routine into a 32 bit operating system. The 32 bit OS can NOT run 64 bit binaries, and it is telling you that. Since the internals are completely different, it is not possible to "upgrade" a 32 bit operating system to a 64 bit operating system.

The short answer is: You must do a clean install.

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The_Prophecy   11-16-2009 at 10:25:06 PM
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Just because you are using a 64 bit capable processor, does not mean you are running a 64 bit operating system. As Scotteq said, if you want to move to 64 bit Windows 7, you will need to do a clean install.

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