then i'll go over to my backup computers, add the 10 images, and replace the old td4 with the latest one.
that is all i'm doing. all the 64bit w7's are fine but when i do the same to my 32bit windows7 the 10 images aren't categorized and the properties/galleries tab in any of the 10 images is blank, so i do it manually.
(Again, nothing to do with 32 vs 64 bits).
Are you sure that, on the backup computer, ThumbsPlus is actually using the database that you copied to it? The database name is shown in the title bar of the program and its location should be shown under Help | System Information | Database Path (if v5 already had that dialog screen.. I don't recall, but v7 sure does).
Then, are you sure that the drive on the backup PC to which you have copied the 10 images, has the same volume label and folder structure as the drive in the computer on which the TD4 was originally made? If not, TP cannot match the files that it finds in that folder to the corresponding thumbnail records.