Hospitals, ATMs, CNC machines, and point-of-sale (POS) systems run on embedded 32-bit Windows 7. IT administrators sometimes resort to Ghost images for rapid disaster recovery when the original recovery media is lost.

If you need a 32-bit operating system for older hardware, do not use a Ghost image. Instead, consider these safer, legal alternatives:

Ghost images often include "universal" driver packs. Installing the wrong chipset or graphics driver can cause BSODs (Blue Screen of Death), USB port failures, or network adapter issues that are impossible to diagnose.

To restore your Windows 7 32-bit system from a ghost image, follow these steps: