Upgrade to 64bit with recovery media?

[NuTooVista]

Hi, Ive been looking around for a laptop recently and I was thinking about the Toshiba Satellite A300/C01 (link:its the 4th laptop from the left). Anyway, the laptop comes with Vista Home Premium 32bit installed and it comes with recovery media for the 64bit version.

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (32bit) (includes recovery media for Windows Vista® Home Premium 64bit)

I was wondering what use the recovery media is? i.e. will I be able to clean install the laptop to the 64bit version with it and if so is it worth my while to do so? Also, if thats the case and I choose to do so, when it comes to finding drivers for stuff, what exactly do I need to find drivers for and would you suggest anywhere in particular. Thanks for any help

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello NuTooVista, welcome to Vista forums!

Your best bet would be to ask Toshiba Support at this link.

Be sure to keep us informed as to what you find out!













Later Ted

 

[NuTooVista]

Ok, Thanks for that, I'll get right on it and i'll let you know how it goes.

EDIT
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It appears that you can use the recovery disks to install the 64bit version of vista home premium. So now thats covered up, If i do go to 64 bit, what drivers do I need to download before hand (as in drivers for what stuff - graphics cards and so on)?
Thanks
Ash

 

[sidewinder]

It appears that you can use the recovery disks to install the 64bit version of vista home premium. So now thats covered up, If i do go to 64 bit, what drivers do I need to download before hand (as in drivers for what stuff - graphics cards and so on)?

Ash,

There is no way the recovery disk will do anything other than allow you to recover the system to the state it was when new. If you had 32-bit Vista Home Premium, that means that's all it will install.

You need to talk to someone else at Toshiba. Also, the license for OEM version of 32-bit Vista do not allow for changing to the 64-bit version. You have to have a fully licensed version to do that.

S-

 

[xyzzyman]

Many of the newer Toshiba notebooks are coming with 32bit & 64bit. Went to restore a floor model the other day where I work, and it gave me the option of going to 32bit even though 64bit was the factory installed OS. Even had an explanation that while 32bit may be more compatible in certain situations, that not all the RAM would be accessible. Many gateway's now have 32bit/64bit also being shipped.

 

[sidewinder]

xyzzyman,

That's certainly new, and better, behavior on the part of manufacturers. Maybe Microsoft finally changed the licensing terms for certain OEMs so they could do this. But that has not been the case in the past.

S-

 

[NuTooVista]

Hmm, conflicting answers I read on the whirlpool.net.au forum (link here about 4 posts from the bottom) that someone installed 64bit vista with the toshibas recovery disks. And from what xyzzyman said it seems that you can do it?
Ash

 

[NuTooVista]

I had a look at the website when you first posted the link and ive just gone and had another look. After searching through there help files I couldnt seem to find any mention of recovery disks at all except for how to create them. I posted a question on their linked to but not supported forum which will hopefully provide some answers and I have also asked the same question on the forum that I mentioned where I'd seen someone say they had done it, so hopefully i'll get a solution which i'll mention ASAP
Ash

 

[sidewinder]

NuTooVista,

If the recovery disc is made by copying data from the recovery partition, I have yet to see a laptop that shipped with 32-bit Vista come with a recovery partition that had anything other than 32-bit Vista in it.

But, I have not looked at new laptops lately so maybe that has changed....

S-

 

[NuTooVista]

Well, It doesn't come with a recovery partition but recovery discs I think, im not quite sure what recovery media implies, but that's what recovery media means to me. Anyway, enough arguing semantics It definitely comes with 64bit recovery media in whatever form and from what e few people around the place have said, it should if used to restore everything put the 64bit version on the laptop. Someone also said that it would contain the basic drivers and i wouldnt need to worry aout installing those before hand? ANyway, thanks to all for the help

 

[Chappy]

Hi NuTooVista

You have to forgive folks at times when it comes to Vista and even OEM's these days, Vista has changed all the rules that used to be written in stone, and it's still surprising many of us. If Toshiba has both the 32 and 64bit versions available thru the recovery media (be it a hidden drive or right on the DVD's), then it is quite possible for you to install 64bit Vista. I haven't seen the Toshiba OEM EULA so I don't know if when you purchased the Hm Prem 32bit version that you also get a 64bit version license as well, but under normal circumstances you need to purchase a seperate license for the 64bit version as a 32bit license will not activate a 64bit version. You may find that you can indeed install 64bit Vista, but don't be surprised if you need to purchase a new license to activate it....this is something you may want to talk to Toshiba about in more detail.

As for drivers, WinUpdate will most likely find a number of them for you and maybe all that you need. Vista will also get pretty much everything running under the generic 64bit driver DB it has but you'll want to make sure your Graphics, Ethernet controller (if used), Audio and other main hardware drivers are up to date 64bit versions. Toshiba most likely has links to all the 64bit drivers your lappy needs since they probably have 64bit versions of that model they support, so you should be able to find all your driver needs at the Toshiba support site.

Now....do you really need to go 64bit? Unless you're trying to use 4 or more G's of RAM or you have (a) specific 64bit program you need to run in it's full 64bit mode...do you really need anything 64bit Vista offers? If the answer to the above is "No", then stick with 32bit for now as you will find nothing in 64bit that will do you anything better than the 32bit version offers.
Do not be fooled by some other sites who say you'll see speed increases in everything using 64bit OS, this is complete bunk unless you have programs specifically written to take advantage of 64bit architecture. Otherwise just general computing is basically the same between the 2 versions.

 

[NuTooVista]

Hey, thanks for that. The laptop does come with 4gb of ram so i was considering it (64bit), not really sure though, but Ive got plenty of time to think about it as i havent got the laptop yet. I suppose I should try find toshiba's EULA or just try contact them directly somehow. Anyway, Cheers
Ash

 

[James Colbert]

I have a Toshiba M305D-S4831 that came with Vista 64 installed. The recovery disk states an option to choose between 32 or 64 bit when recovering.