I have a laptop in front of me with a corrupt win7 install. When it boots, it just gets stuck in startup repair for hours on end, reboots and does the same thing. Rinse and repeat forever. I can access the HDD when I slave it to another machine, so I can pull off docs and photos etc.. but I can't do a reinstall because the COA sticker on the underside is worn, and I can't read the key. This is why I always cellotape over the COA stickers of my laptops. If I have access to the drive (slaved), is there any way to display the key? I know magical jellybean only works on the OS drive of the host machine, but are there other ways to recover it from a slaved drive? I'm guessing he's boned, but I have to try. Cheers peeps. Spreadie
ProduKey will work as mentioned, just point it to the Windows directory on the external drive when you open the program. You will also probably have to run as administrator otherwise you won't be able to access the registry on the external drive. If you're trying to recover a key from an installation of Windows that was preloaded by a computer manufacturer (OEM) the key you get back will be the mass installation key from the OEM's image and is designed to activate automatically as part of the normal setup routine - and it won't be of any use to you. When you go to enter that key and then try to activate yourself, you'll get a message that the key is invalid. If you have recovery discs for the laptop, you should use those.
in my experience, few people follow the prompt to create recovery disks, and then moan when they cant reload because of a faulty hd, and no disks, the shop i do some work for, has started to create the disks for customer, so they don't need too. produkey should work, but as stated the key may not be what you expect.
Thanks all. I did eventually manage to get the system to "see" the recovery partition, so Produkey wasn't necessary on this occasion; but it's certainly a useful tool to have.
This'll be my girlfriend at somepoint. I tell her all the time to make a recovery disk for her laptop as her COA sticker is worn. If something happens to her install, I get to tell her "I told you so", which i don't get to say to her as often as i'd like.
