Retrieving WinXP CD-Key

[heymrdj]

Hello, chapter 2 of working on my numbnut neighor's PC. The PC is an old 800Mhz PIII, 128MB RAM, 20GB HD, Windows Mellenium system. A few years back, by a company somewhere here in the city, it was upgraded to a 120GB HD and Windows XP. Well the dumb...(fella) that installed XP DIN"T PUT THE FREAKIN CD-KEY ON THE SYSTEM. The XP installation went belly up, no possibility to boot into it. I have the drive in a work system (one I use to work on other's pc's) and I can get the data and all. So I have two quetions.

1. Most importantly
Is there any file that holds the CD-key that I could get to? I REALLY need it to reinstall the XP.

2. I can't remember all of it, but is it possible to just copy and paste the i386 folder of the XP CD (Retail copy) to the Windows folder of the hard drive to act as a repair install?

Thanks alot, prompt responses welcome.

 

[programmer]

Download and run the Jellybean keyfinder
http://www.mjbforum.com/files/keyfinder.v1.41.zip

It will tell you the XP CD-Key

 

[programmer]

Ah, sorry, re-read your message and see you can see the data but can't actually boot that drive. hmmm... not sure about that one.

 

[programmer]

So reading around a bit, the cd-key is stored in the registry, no doubt encrypted in some way.

 

[programmer]

Interesting, a location and some source code to retrieve the key from HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId
http://www.planet-source-code....gWId=1&txtCodeId=57164

 

[heymrdj]

Yeah the Jellybean thing only showd the current system. Your planet source code looks interesting. But I don't understand how to actually use it or point it to the Registry stored on the Drive D (second hard drive).

 

[programmer]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986

"A registry hive is a group of keys, subkeys, and values in the registry that has a set of supporting files that contain backups of its data. The supporting files for all hives except HKEY_CURRENT_USER are in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config folder ..."

Registry hive Supporting files
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software Software, Software.log, Software.sav


Also may be of use
http://www.easydesksoftware.com/news/news32.htm

more interesting stuff
http://www.linuxforums.org/for...istry-bash-script.html


Good luck!

 

[mechBgon]

Without the COA sticker that has the key on it, you don't really have a license to use WinXP anyway, unfortunately. Any chance you can get your neighbor to pony up for a license/COA/CD-ROM kit?

 

[heymrdj]

No, no way no how he'll pony up. He'll have to wait till he can afford a new Dell Outlet system for ~$500. Till then though he'll bug the royal crap out of me. Oh well..I'll talk to him..Thanks guys.

PS: makes me wonder how legal that WinXP is on there with no COA ever attached..

 

[kmmatney]

You can always go with windows 2000...or Ubuntu.

 

[heymrdj]

Thank God, he's just going to buy a new Vista system and take the data I salvaged from his old one.

As to Windows 2000, he didn't want that (I have a spare of that). And Ubuntu..well he can hardly run Windows...I don't think he's ready to understand how to install drivers in command line.

 

[redbeard1]

The newer version says you can load the hive (registry) from another hard drive and get the key.

Newer Magical Jelly Bean

 

[spacejamz]

Text

I asked a similar question about two years ago here and someone posted about this program...works like a charm...

 

[Linflas]

Ultimate boot cd for windows has a utility to get to it assuming the file system is still intact on the original drive.

 

[heymrdj]

Really? I have UBCD but my bro didn't find anything he could use on it. I'll take a personal scan myself tonight. Thanks guys.

 

[bendixG15]

Originally posted by: redbeard1
The newer version says you can load the hive (registry) from another hard drive and get the key.

Newer Magical Jelly Bean

Clicking on that Jelly Bean link gives you this ...........

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /keyfinder/ on this server.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

 

[redbeard1]

It works for me.

 

[xgsound]

Originally posted by: heymrdj
Really? I have UBCD but my bro didn't find anything he could use on it. I'll take a personal scan myself tonight. Thanks guys.

There are two different CDs, "UBCD" (dos) and "UBCD for windows" (XP). The UBCD4WIN ( http://www.ubcd4win.com/ ) is a limited XP bootable CD you can build from your XP CD that can import hives. I think Jelly bean is on it! Very useful item. See details at the web site.


Jim

 

[heymrdj]

I just got the keys with the Jelleybean tool. That...is the best key finder EVER. All the keys on my systems to games, OS's, and everything it can find. It's definitely going into my arsenal. As for UBCD4WIN, I'm looking into making a disc of that to go into my arsenal as well. Problems are solved guys. Got the data including emails and addressbook, and his keys, this thread served. Thanks for all the help .