Extracting XP License Key / Repairing ruined install

SamuraiRock

Okay, simple version:

My aunt gave me her computer to fix. It needs to be formatted. It was custom built by 'someone she knows' and she didn't get a Windows CD/Key with it, so I want to know if I can extract it and see if it's legit / if it is, reuse it, if it's not, tell her the situation and get her a legit copy. Difficulty: can't boot into Windows, so I need something that can run at a command prompt or boot right from it's own floppy or CD.

Complicated version:

Explorer would crash right away once it got into Windows, and if I reran it from the task manager it would crash again anyway. Booted into safe mode, same thing, but it did ask me if I wanted to restore from an old system restore point. So after figuring I couldn't stop explorer from crashing, I decided to do a restore. Should be simple, go back to a point before it was stuffed, right? So I did it, and let it go, came back after class 5 hours later and it had hard-locked. So I had to reset it and after that Windows wouldn't boot at all (sat on mup.sys if I remember right). I guess half the files were restored and now there's version conflicts or something. I can't seem to find a way to get a Windows CD to repair the existing install. If I use Automated System Recovery it asks for a floppy, which I don't have, and a bit of googling implies the floppies are specific to each system and must be created ahead of time. I went to the Recovery Console and fiddled a bit, I think I tried fixboot but it asked if it was okay to format C:. It wasn't as I don't have a key at this stage. Can I repair the install with a Windows CD?

Any help with either case appreciated

bowen

This may be of help to you:

• 
  
• Dump Windows Registry in linux (should be okay with a liveCD)
• Can the Windows product key be in the registry? (I can't verify this one)

If you have a Windows XP CD, pop that in and run a repair. That should get it back to the point where it can boot (the second repair option, not the first -- I believe).

Once you can boot, this will be your best bet:

Magic JellyBean

EggyToast

If it was built by "someone she knows" and she didn't get any software disks, it's all pirated stuff. You can spend time hunting it down but it's pretty accepted knowledge that when someone hooks you up with a built computer and it comes with tons of software on it, for no money and no discs, it's all illegal.

For that reason it's also unlikely that a valid XP disc will fix the system; it will either detect that the versions don't match, or will only let you format/overwrite the original install.

JHunz

I haven't tried this myself, but it looks legit and they're not asking you to buy anything:
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/windows-xp-product-key-recovery/

Edit: EggyToast is almost certainly correct, however.

JaysonFour

Save yourself the stress- the comp sounds borked beyond any other means of repair other than a reformat/reinstall with legitimate programs. You might have to upgrade the system to handle Vista (copies of XP are damn near impossible to find, at least around here...), but you need to reformat.