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I have Windows Server and by the looks of the install disk it seems to be a 64 bit version. Can this be installed and run successfully on 32 bit hardware?

It's Windows Server 2008 R2.

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how do you have a 32-bit machine in today's world? – warren Nov 11 '11 at 4:24
@warren I am pushing this out to a desktop pc that is 32the bit. Just for learning/development and I wanted Windows Server to be the OS. – Thomas Stringer Nov 11 '11 at 4:32
Are you sure it's really 32-bit? What CPU does it have? – David Schwartz Nov 11 '11 at 5:19

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Windows Server 2008 R2 is ONLY 64 bit. There is no 32 bit version. It will not be able to be run successfully on 32 bit hardware, unfortunately.

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I am getting this through dreamspark and the minimum system requirements have specs for 32 bit systems as well. Why would that be?? – Thomas Stringer Nov 11 '11 at 4:30
The Windows 7 Client can be 32-bit or if you had access to Windows Server 2008 (not R2) you can get the 32-bit install. I believe you can use Oracle VirtualBox to run a 64-bit VM on 32-bit hardware, but you would still need an OS on the machine first. – Top__Hat Nov 11 '11 at 4:39
@Top__Hat I can get Windows Server 2008. So you're saying I can run that on 32the bit machine then?? – Thomas Stringer Nov 11 '11 at 4:53
@Shark - there is a 32-bit version of Server 2008, so if you installed that, it would work – Mark Henderson♦ Nov 11 '11 at 5:28
@Shark - What Mark said is exactly right. Windows Server 2008 comes in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. If there isn't something specific to the R2 release you want/need to test just use the 32-bit Windows Server 2008 install. – Top__Hat Nov 11 '11 at 6:05

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