System crashed no XP media/key

[Guest Dan Andrews]

Hello,

I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system and

he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

(keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

--

Thanks,

Dan

[Guest Colin Barnhorst]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

I think Keyfinder only finds the keys for the OS that is booted so I doubt

that it will detect on a disk mounted as a data disk. SIW and Everest

probably work the same way. I think the issue would be the registry that is

active. If you try and succeed please let us know as that would be

interesting.

 

"Dan Andrews" <dan4u2@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message

news:BA9F42FA-DD69-4B52-A19A-C06F3342EAC8@microsoft.com...

> Hello,

> I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system and

> he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

> (keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

> another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

> --

> Thanks,

> Dan

[Guest R. McCarty]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

The only makeshift way I can think of is mount the drive in a working

system. Use Regedit to load the Software Hive of the non-functioning

XP instance. Run any of KeyFinder programs. Not sure it will work

but may be an option to try.

 

"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:107BF783-5EDB-47F8-9918-3DFFA4A68823@microsoft.com...

>I think Keyfinder only finds the keys for the OS that is booted so I doubt

>that it will detect on a disk mounted as a data disk. SIW and Everest

>probably work the same way. I think the issue would be the registry that

>is active. If you try and succeed please let us know as that would be

>interesting.

>

> "Dan Andrews" <dan4u2@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message

> news:BA9F42FA-DD69-4B52-A19A-C06F3342EAC8@microsoft.com...

>> Hello,

>> I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system

>> and

>> he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

>> (keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

>> another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

>> --

>> Thanks,

>> Dan

>

[Guest Dan Andrews]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

Thanks for the quick reply Colin,

I found a post in the discussion group regarding keyfinder Beta 2.0, you

can load an external hive with this beta. I installed the disk as a slave on

a windows 2003 server, loaded keyfinder, used the load hive option and it

found the key and OS version!

--

Thanks,

Dan

 

 

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

> I think Keyfinder only finds the keys for the OS that is booted so I doubt

> that it will detect on a disk mounted as a data disk. SIW and Everest

> probably work the same way. I think the issue would be the registry that is

> active. If you try and succeed please let us know as that would be

> interesting.

>

> "Dan Andrews" <dan4u2@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message

> news:BA9F42FA-DD69-4B52-A19A-C06F3342EAC8@microsoft.com...

> > Hello,

> > I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system and

> > he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

> > (keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

> > another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

> > --

> > Thanks,

> > Dan

>

[Guest Colin Barnhorst]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

"Dan Andrews" <dan4u2@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message

news:5E59A4BD-85F7-4E31-B871-EDC8D6684A6E@microsoft.com...

> Thanks for the quick reply Colin,

> I found a post in the discussion group regarding keyfinder Beta 2.0,

> you

> can load an external hive with this beta. I installed the disk as a slave

> on

> a windows 2003 server, loaded keyfinder, used the load hive option and it

> found the key and OS version!

> --

> Thanks,

> Dan

>

>

> "Colin Barnhorst" wrote:

>

>> I think Keyfinder only finds the keys for the OS that is booted so I

>> doubt

>> that it will detect on a disk mounted as a data disk. SIW and Everest

>> probably work the same way. I think the issue would be the registry that

>> is

>> active. If you try and succeed please let us know as that would be

>> interesting.

>>

>> "Dan Andrews" <dan4u2@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message

>> news:BA9F42FA-DD69-4B52-A19A-C06F3342EAC8@microsoft.com...

>> > Hello,

>> > I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system

>> > and

>> > he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

>> > (keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

>> > another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

>> > --

>> > Thanks,

>> > Dan

>>

[Guest Bruce Chambers]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

Dan Andrews wrote:

> Hello,

> I have a situation where a customer of ours has a crashed XP system and

> he cannot find the media or key. Is there a way to extract the key

> (keyfinder) from the data that is on the disk, by putting that disk in

> another system? Once he has the key we can re-install with OEM media.

 

 

If you're planning on using an OEM installation disk, why not use the

OEM Product Key on the label affixed to the exterior of the computer?

 

 

--

 

Bruce Chambers

 

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[Guest aa7homas@gmail.com]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

You can obtain the Winxp key from a corrupt XP install as long as you

can get to the windows directory. try the following.

 

1. ghost the hard drive to an image.

 

2. extract the windows directory from the image and put it somewhere

safe i.e. myDocs.

 

3. Download the latest version of Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder from

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/

 

4. Open the Keyfinder and select "Tools>Load Hive".

 

5. Browse for the windows directory you extracted from the image and

click "ok"

 

The key will magically appear in the open window.

 

As I mentioned you must be able to access the Windows directory on the

target machine. If you can simply copy this directory straight off

the hard drive it will do...But if the hard drive is partially corrupt

from bad sectors, any type of access often will cause further damage.

Therefore I recommend imaging the drive first up, it will give you

more chance of data recovery too.

 

In terms of using OEM media this should work as long as the target pc

is not from HP, Dell or the likes.

[Guest aa7homas@gmail.com]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

On Feb 13, 11:41 am, Bruce Chambers <bchamb...@cable0ne.n3t> wrote:

 

> If you're planning on using an OEM installation disk, why not use the

> OEM Product Key on the label affixed to the exterior of the computer?

>

> Bruce Chambers

 

 

Sometimes the OEM Key gets damaged through use. i.e. heavily used

laptops.

[Guest Daave]

Re: System crashed no XP media/key

 

aa7homas@gmail.com wrote:

> On Feb 13, 11:41 am, Bruce Chambers <bchamb...@cable0ne.n3t> wrote:

>> If you're planning on using an OEM installation disk, why

>> not use the OEM Product Key on the label affixed to the exterior of

>> the computer?

> Sometimes the OEM Key gets damaged through use. i.e. heavily used

> laptops.

 

True. That's what happened to my sister-in-law's laptop.