Thinkpads Forum

hi guys
I ordered a New Thinkpad W510 with windows 7 pro 32 bit installed and i want to install the windows 7 pro 64 bit sure it will be a clean installation the problem is the laptop will come with no recovery dvd or any windows 7 OEM copy and i dont have any copy of windows 7 to install from it

and as i read in another posts that the migration must be from OEM to OEM not from OEM(32 bit installed one ) to Retail 64 bit (if i have it )

so any solution to this problem guys ? please provide me with steps to prepare my self b4 the laptop come

thanks so much

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me like you ordered the W510 with Windows 7 32bit and you would like to do a clean install of Windows 7 64bit. By clean install do you mean lenovo's factory condition, or a straight install of retail Windows 7?

If you want all of the lenovo software and driver's preinstalled and the ability to use the recovery partition and what not, you will need to order 64 bit recovery discs from lenovo.

If you wish to do a true clean install of retail windows 7, you will need to purchase the retail media or license, wipe the hard drive, install it, and then install the lenovo software and drivers of your choice.

hunterman223 wrote:If you wish to do a true clean install of retail windows 7, you will need to purchase the retail media or license, wipe the hard drive, install it, and then install the lenovo software and drivers of your choice.

Not so. You can use this method to do a clean install 64 bit Windows, or for 32 bit for that matter, and won't have to purchase another copy of Windows 7.

I've had 64 bit Window installed. Personally, I can't tell much of a difference doing just regular stuff, but if you want more than 3GB of memory, which is more than enough in my experience for general usage, 64 bit is the way to go.

That is true, you can download the media, but your 32bit license will not work with 64bit media. If you were to purchase just the license key from the microsoft store, they would provide you with a download link as well.

hunterman223 wrote:That is true, you can download the media, but your 32bit license will not work with 64bit media. If you were to purchase just the license key from the microsoft store, they would provide you with a download link as well.

Are you sure on this...? Cause my key works with both 32-bit and 64-bit media.

Cheers.

I thought that that only applied to retail media, but I could be mistaken.