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Pros

- modern Windows 10 PE (original Hiren's was Windows XP based Windows PE)

- supports UEFI (original was Legacy boot only)

- freeware (no pirated content)

- USB/DVD bootable

Cons

- UEFI only

- 64-bit only

Edit: formatting

Included tools list on download page: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/




> Cons: 64-bit only

I mean, when was the last time 32 bit CPUs were sold? In 2009 I bought a basic very cheap computer. It still had 64 bit.


And, the old versions of Hiren's Boot CD are still available for download[1], which are 32bit...

[1] https://www.hirensbootcd.org/old-versions/


There are people out there who refuse to upgrade their old “enterprise” software and are forced to run 32 bit OSes or old hardware. It all helps.


That's rather unusual. 64 bit OSes run 32 bit software. Usually a lack of support comes from the software being legacy software, not so much being 32 bit.

You may already know this, but often times Wine tends to be a better option than running an insecure OS. Wine is more compatible with 32bit Windows software (and old windows software) than Windows is.


Apple just released Catalina, which no longer runs 32-bit apps.


And Microsoft just announced the SurfaceX, which runs ARM and x86 apps, but not x64.


In my lab we have a perpetual license of an expensive scientific software... that is sadly 32 bits only. So we keep a 32 bit PC just for that.


You can run x86 code on an AMD64/x86-64 CPU.


So I got downvoted because people know about compatibility support in CPUs? Like you’re telling me something I don’t know? Lol


I downvoted you too, for whinging and not addressing other peoples' arguments.


I’m not whining. I stated a case to be glad about having legacy options hanging around. You’re reading intonation into my words that isn’t there. Stop it, please.

Here’s an upvote to try and push this a positive direction against the momentum.


Would you please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the HN guidelines.

Comments about voting are highly discouraged.

Additionally voting is not about your feelings, or even whether you agree with the person. Everyone should vote based on what is relevant to the conversation.

Anything not relevant to the topic at hand should be downvoted. It's not a personal attack, it's a way to clean up the thread to prevent people from reading irrelevant posts that don't add anything to the discussion.


Intel released 32 bit Atoms in 2012. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/70105/i...


Also Intels Atom used by many tablets from the Windows 8 days has 32 bit EFI limiting Windows to only be 32bit. For example - Dell Venue 8 Pro, Lenovo Miix and many others


Intel was selling 32bit only Atom CPUs for netbooks up until 2010. I assume these netbooks were still sold until at least 2011.


I was shocked when I realized that my raspi3 outperformed my mini10v (1.6GHz Atom netbook) in a trivial bzip2 benchmark: https://gist.github.com/cellularmitosis/d0b511abc9d0d7a2d80e...


I wonder if 64 bit only means that it will only work on 64bit hardware, or if it means that and additionally adds the inability to run 32 bit binaries. If you can't run 32 bit binaries on it then that means things like steam and many games wont work properly.... Not that this OS is really designed for gaming....


WinPE 10.0, the base OS of this, does not include WoW64, so it will not run Windows binaries compiled for the x86 architecture.

Using this software for gaming or similar purposes would be a violation of the Windows PE license agreement.


I have a similar Windows 10 PE BootCD / USB / PXE, built from scripts from GitHub (https://github.com/VulpesSARL/MiniNT5-Tools) which includes WoW64, that allows to run 32 Bit executables.


I have some old PowerEdge 2650 servers that are 32 bit. Old, but useful.


Not really very useful, replacing them with something that is significantly more powerful and uses 1/4th the power (or less) would quickly pay for itself.

Which is why old servers on ebay go for very cheap.


This mentality is why many beautiful 80s home computers were tossed back in the day. They have aesthetic and cultural value that will be recognized one day.


80s computers still wouldn't be worth much of anything if 99% of them didn't get recycled.

I don't think there is anything beautiful, interesting or unique about a couple of million outdated generic x86 2U servers, nor will there really ever be.


I felt this way about some of my early “generic” x86 systems and threw them out. Now I feel like an idiot because I’d love to fire up my old 486 again.


I don't think many people are ever gonna feel nostalgic about firing up their 48 server rack and paying a $1000 power bill.


Oh man, those things are beasts! I had some 2550s, one 2650, and some 2850s. Somewhere around 2G of memory if I recall (this was 2002 - 2008)


I believe the lower-level access mode of Victoria HDD only works on 32-bit Windows. This was one reason I specifically sought out a 32-bit version of Hiren's Boot CD.


Some Windows 10 tablets with Atom CPUs (until 2016)


Actually original Hiren's boot CD was DOS-based.


At my last job I had a Hiren's CD that I used frequently... to boot up Parted Magic on certain hardware.

Doesn't look like that's included anymore, but this wouldn't run on that old hardware anyway.


These days you have the Ubuntu live-dvd/usb image with Gparted to cover those needs.

Parted Magic has really not kept well up.


Do you know of a good Linux live DVD/USB for securely erasing SSDs (both SATA and NVMe)? Parted Magic includes a nice app for doing this [1]. Although it is just a front end for hdparm, nvme-cli [2], nwipe etc. I haven't found an alternative that is as quick and easy to use.

[1] https://partedmagic.com/secure-erase/

[2] http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/secure-erase-hdds-ss...


64 bit cpu. Which is the case for basically every computer made in the last 10 years, even if it's running a 32 bit OS.




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