Help Urgently Required For My Missing Bits & Lost Memory!

[john2028]

@Woolfie - ( and others)

 

Hi Woolfie, You have helped me out recently in regard to computer matters. A strange thing happened this week, which has me completely baffled..

 

Some time ago I bought a used Dell Latitude, Model E4300 business laptop. It had Vista installed, and a normal HDD. I had a SDD installed and also an upgrade to Windows 7 Pro 32 bit, by a local computer firm. I clone the drive regularly to a same size and make SSD , (OCZ) and often swap them over in the laptop,with no problems whatsoever. I also have a powerful desktop PC, which I upgraded myself, installing a new motherboard and a quad core processor, socket 775 CPU, new PSU etc. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, with 8gb of fast RAM and a small SSD. I also installed a large HDD for storage purposes I then recently decided to install the cloned laptop 256gb SSD into the Desktop. Before doing so I ran a virus check on the desktop and a tune up prog. I then got down to installing the SSD mentioned into the desktop, not bothering to re-format this, as I know that any data would be overwritten, when I cloned the desktop drive, using my usual Easeus Todo Back-Up. I was very careful with the SATA 3 cables when connecting the SSD, ensuring that the ones running the OS were not inadvertently changed over. When I fired the PC up, it hung during the usual boot-up messages, It requested pressing either F1, with a message I cannot recollect, or F2 to Reset. I opted for F2, and when the Windows screen appeared I was amazed to see my laptop icons there, and a PC which was running perfectly, in Windows 7 Pro 32 bit!!! It automatically installed various drivers, especially for my large LG flat screen monitor ,scanners and other devices. Purely by chance my Epson A3 size printer was switched on, and even the drivers for that were loaded. All this puzzled me of course, as to why new drivers were necessary at that stage.

 

How can a cloned drive from a laptop with a 32 bit system boot-up in a machine with a completely different processor and 64 bit OS??? The firm which originally installed Windows 7 Pro on the Dell laptop presumably has a licence to install numerous copies of W7, and \I do not know how serial numbers etc are arranged and safeguarded. Why also did it boot up on a different drive, as I never went near the BIOS???

 

I am quite pleased really that the desktop icons are identical on my two machines, but the desktop OS, now having changed to 32 bit, from 64 bit, will only recognise 3 gb of the installed 8gb of RAM!!!

 

I hope you can follow all this!! I am totally baffled.

 

Kind regards

 

John.

 

PS I am completely certain that I did not inadvertently swap over the SATA 3 cables, as previously mentioned. Everything is verified as genuine copies of Windows, on both machines, and I have no problems whatsoever with upgrades! I still have the 64gb SSD, with the Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit OS various progs, music photos and documents, all intact I am presently considering installing and cloning this to the 256gb SSD, but of course this will mean that the programs will all have to be re-installed. I have disks for some, but some progs were quite expensive downloads, especially the BitDefender AV, which is on 3 machines for two years.

 

My tiny Samsung NC10 Netbook is on XP, the support for which ceases this April. I don't think I can face upgrading this to W7!!

 

I am getting much too old for all this techno stuff!!

[nullavenger]

Clearly you added your SSD to a SATA channel with a higher boot priority; The whole machine is simply booting off your cloned laptop SSD and not your normal desktop drives. The reason this works is that most 64 bit intel systems are backwards compatible with the 32bit instruction sets.

 

Go into your BIOS and look at your boot ordering, you should be able to select with SATA channel has priority.

[Scumbag]

I am quite pleased really that the desktop icons are identical on my two machines, but the desktop OS, now having changed to 32 bit, from 64 bit, will only recognise 3 gb of the installed 8gb of RAM!!!

 

32 bit operating systems can only address up to 4GB of memory. The reason you are seeing less is that some of it is reserved for your hardware (eg some might be reserved for use with graphics).

[FROST MEDIC999]

What the others said and I can add nothing further unless somebody else posts up and I agree with them also 5555

 

Ghosty

[Woofiee]

I'm thinking that nullavenger is correct, but as a unix-cum-mac guy, I can only guess. As far as addressing your entire memory compliment, you're going to have to back up (if you've not) and reinstall the OS. I presume the 64-bit is a different install. not an update. 

 

Sorry - I wish I could be of more help this time around. 

[Scumbag]

 

I presume the 64-bit is a different install. not an update. 

It certainly does need to new install. I believe that there are no licensing issues switching between 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7.

[999Baht]

From the title I thought you were talking about a massive night out!

[CyberPro]

 

How can a cloned drive from a laptop with a 32 bit system boot-up in a machine with a completely different processor and 64 bit OS??? The firm which originally installed Windows 7 Pro on the Dell laptop presumably has a licence to install numerous copies of W7, and \I do not know how serial numbers etc are arranged and safeguarded. Why also did it boot up on a different drive, as I never went near the BIOS???

 

There are few reasons why the cloned-from-laptop drive would NOT boot in your desktop, as long as it's running an OS that's compatible with the hardware, etc. I've been fairly successful getting SATA drives from one computer to run in another. As you observed, drivers will be loaded the 1st few times the computer boots. 

 

You are only talking about 2 drives in the desktop? Try it sometime with 4 drives, each having it's own Windows (multiboot) install. I've found that when the drive you expect to boot does not, try disconnecting all the other drives, get the computer to boot from the desired drive, then connect the other drives one at a time while watching that the computer still boots to the desired drive. This method may sound improper but it's worked in my experience. Good luck. ;) 

[Little Evil]

32 bit operating systems can only address up to 4GB of memory. The reason you are seeing less is that some of it is reserved for your hardware (eg some might be reserved for use with graphics).

 

 

Yes, and no, and yes again.  

 

Indeed, 32 bit x86 operating systems are limited to under 4gigs out of the box, so you're spot on above. However, through PAE (Physical Address Extension), one can open up more addressable ram up to something crazy like 64GB. The physical total will also depend on version of Windows, processor, motherboard, and other limiting factors, but 8GB shouldn't be an issue for most relatively current systems. Limitations are that any one process can only address 4gigs virtual address space.  Also, activating it is a bitch the first time and not for the tech illiterate. I tell most people to avoid it unless completely necessary. It does exist though.  

[nrvous]

I don't really follow this but I'll make a few comments.

 

If you booted your desktop up with an SSD from your laptop, then the OS will go and load the appropriate drivers via the PNP process.

 

A Dell Latitude e4300 can run 64bit OS.

 

A windows 7 OS installed as 32bit and moved to another computer will not change to a 64bit OS.

 

32bit can only see about 3.6gb of RAM (you may see less or more depending on the tool you use)

 

A Dell Latitude e4300 never came with windows 7. The firm that installed it, unless you have the physical certificate or certificate sticker (for OEM licenses which would not be legit on your e4300), you have a cracked or otherwise, illegal copy. Tons of easy ways to do this. Most likely you will never see any issues btw.

 

Sorry I can't be of more help as I didn't quite follow the train of thought. Something about swapping drives and they are working but not as planned or something.

 

Also, while you can move a drive from 1 machine to another, I would never do this unless they were HP or DELL business class computers of the same specs (at least processor level, integrated motherboard chips). It may work fine forever or a week. It may be that you have a weird issue with 1 piece of software (usually around licensing) or you never have an issue at all. But swapping a drive between two systems (not alike) in your scenario was never tested by MS and is unsupported.

 

if you could re-write the issue with a bit more clarity, I can look again.