Question My Z77 mobo crapped out, now I am left with an SSD with Win. 10 and no key.. have disk

[winr]

My Z77 mobo crapped out, now I am left with an SSD with Win. 10 and no key.. have disk ( misplaced the holder and key )

I have a new mobo on the way but it has an Intel chipset Q67 Express Chipset, not sure if the mobo will boot the SSD


Anyway I can get the key from the SSD if it wont boot with the new mobo ?? , I have a stand alone unit for drives that plugs into a PC via USB

And is retrieving my key legal or such ??


Ricky.

 

[quietdad2]

Attach the drive to your standalone, boot from it, in a cmd window run :

wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

You can also attach it to a working windows PC and attach to the registry on it Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

Each item between backslashes above corresponds to the folders you need to click to find the folder with your Windows product key: the SoftwareProtectionPlatform folder.

Your product key is listed next to the item named BackupProductKeyDefault . You'll find it under

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

Each item between backslashes above corresponds to the folders you need to click to find the folder with your Windows product key: the SoftwareProtectionPlatform folder.

Your product key is listed next to the item named BackupProductKeyDefault.

 

[mikeymikec]

IMO there's a reasonably good chance that it will boot your current Windows installation, but it might say that your product key is no longer valid: MS's opinion is that the key/licence is attached to the board.

 

[Shmee]

IMO there's a reasonably good chance that it will boot your current Windows installation, but it might say that your product key is no longer valid: MS's opinion is that the key/licence is attached to the board.

I agree in general, Windows 10 should boot. Now, there is also a chance that the board you bought has its own Windows 10 entitlement, assuming it is a used board that had Windows 10 activated on it before. In that case, if you are using the same version of Windows 10 as the previous owner, and they were using a local account, you shouldn't need a new key.

If this is not the case, and Windows won't activate, don't sweat it too much, there are a lot of shops and key sites out that sell Windows 10 at large discounts. You don't need to spend $100+ on a license, I recently bought one for a couple Euros, turned out to be about $5. They can seem a bit suspicious at times, but I wouldn't worry much, just make sure you use payment with buyer protection.

 

[winr]

I put the SSD drive in a reader hooked to my other PC via USB

Scrolled through the system files and found the password ( my eyes are still bleeding .. lol )

Thanks for all the advice my Friends !!


Ricky.