Retrieve XP key from non-booting hard drive

[deeyo]

I'm trying to fix a friend's computer which always gets stuck at the login screen. He says he got a virus through one of those myspace links through AIM. I popped his drive into my computer and ran virus scans and disk checks but it still hasn't solved the problem so i think i'll need to do a reformat-reinstall.

However, since i can't boot into windows in the drive, i can't retrieve his Cd-Key. Do you guys know if theres a way to get the cd-key for his hard drive if i'm not booting from it? thanks.

 

[bruceb]

See this link ... if you can see his files, it should work

http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/a...our-windows-activated-after-reinstall/

http://articles.networktechs.com/43-p1.php

When Windows XP was released everybody was complaining about the activation... As time went on people began to realize that they could backup their activation file. I get enough people asking about this that I thought I'd just put the information here. All you have to backup is two little files!

Go to your _:\WINDOWS\System32\ and find a file called "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" back those files up to a floppy, CD or whatever you want to put it on.

When you want to restore these files go into safe mode and put them into your windows\system32 directory. When you reboot you should be activated without actually going through MS

 

[deeyo]

hmm so could i use my windows key for the re-installing and then copy his old activation info into the drive? would that give him his old cd-key back?

 

[John]

Windows XP Product Key Recovery

 

[Underclocked]

UBCD4WIN has Keyfinder included. If the drive will spin up and is at all readable, you can probably find the product key.