• Registered: 2002-09-20
  • Posts: 4,312

Topic: Recovering a XP CD Key From a Hard Drive

From what I've read so far old HD to a new PC won't sit too well with the OS.
I'm trying to repair my aunt's PC and it looks like a fried mobo + power supply.

I'm assuming it's OEM XP Home.

Any ideas?

Last edited by Taknarosh (2009-05-16 02:32)

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  • Registered: 2002-03-09
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Re: Recovering a XP CD Key From a Hard Drive

First, you must have Administrator privilege. Secondly, go to \Windows\System32, locate the file "$winnt$", open it. Down in the section labeled "[UserData]" there's "ProductKey=xxx".

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3 Reply by Crast

  • Registered: 2002-11-01
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Re: Recovering a XP CD Key From a Hard Drive

fwiw, the OEM CD key will only work with the OEM installer. IE if you have a dell CD key, then it won't work with the retail XP installer, whether it be home or pro (and there's actually various versions of even the retail versions, such as a volume license version, etc).  It's really all a clusterfuck, so unless you have the OEM installer discs too, you might as well just pirate a new copy of XP for it.

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  • Registered: 2002-09-20
  • Posts: 4,312

Re: Recovering a XP CD Key From a Hard Drive

Crast wrote:

fwiw, the OEM CD key will only work with the OEM installer. IE if you have a dell CD key, then it won't work with the retail XP installer, whether it be home or pro (and there's actually various versions of even the retail versions, such as a volume license version, etc).  It's really all a clusterfuck, so unless you have the OEM installer discs too, you might as well just pirate a new copy of XP for it.

Yeah, I have both versions don't worry. The difference betweeen OEM and Retail is a value in a file in the installer.

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