[JOYRIIDE1113]

Ok, I'm asking this because if I don't my girlfriend will not leave me alone...Mind you I am as computer savy as the next e90poster but not nearly enough to answer this problem myself.

My girlfriend's laptop was acting funky, she took it to her tech at work, he saved her "special" documents and pictures onto the company server. He then installed a new version of Window XP Professional Service Pack 2. He then loaded all her special files from before onto the new program. Well its been 30 days after and her computer is now telling her she needs to activate windows, asking her for a "PRODUCT KEY". Haha. it gets better. The tech no longer works at her job.

What options do we ( ) have? Some people have said that she needs to buy the windows program itself, but thats like 200 dollars gone to waste...I have Windows XP Home Edition from before that I can install for her, except she wants to be able to retrieve her saved "special" documents from the computer. She can't save it without loggin into windows, and she can't do that without activating windows and giving a product key.

Joy.

[txusa03]

Very difficult with a laptop. Works great with a desktop. In this case, without any 3rd party software, take the HD out and set it as slave and use it as a secnd drive for another computer. That will give you access to the special files so you can save the special files. After that, you just reinstall windows XP. But as I said, very difficult to do with laptop. Maybe somone else has a workable solution.

[just4kickz]

...as long as you dont reformat the files will still be there...cant you just reinstall windows? i'm pretty sure it wont require you to reformat and lose saved files...

[BMW F22]

there are a bunch of windows keys out there that you can get. there's a site called "www.serials.ws" that will give u a bunch of working keys. WARNING: last I heard that site has a lot of spyware, viruses and such. If you're gonna go there to get a key I would suggest doing it quickly and perhaps dont do it on ur computer.

[Ninjaneer]

First I've heard of that. So this isn't the typical "genuine advantage" msg? That one's annoying but it still lets you login and use the pc, it just won't let you update the pc till you fix the prob.

You could try reinstalling from another Windows cd as someone else mentioned. Make sure you do so as an update or such, and NOT a new install or reformat or else you'll lose all your files.

Another option is booting up in DOS and getting files via the command prompt, but this will quickly be annoying and perhaps insufficient if you can't simply copy things over a network or backup to a USB drive or burn to CD.

If you absolutely can't get around Windows and you're savvy enough, do some research on "bootable linux" or "boot linux rescue Windows" - the idea being you use a CD or USB and change the Laptop's BIOS settings to boot from that device and with Linux running you can reach the Windows files and copy those onto the USB etc. Here's a decent looking link I found, might be the way to go: http://lifehacker.com/software/disk-...-cd-192982.php
According to another site I came across you may need to change the USB's properties to "write" to be able to copy files over by right-clicking it (once in Linux) and changing the properties. Haven't used the Linux method myself but I'd def. consider it if I ever have to face something similar with no work-around.

[bullitt5897]

another option is taking your computer to a data recovery store or tech company and having the info ghosted onto a portable hard drive and then installing what ever windows you want.

Mike

[18LLC]

I don't think sp2 needs the cd key, the tech must reinstall the whole windows. Does your gf's company use msdn? if so, tell her to ask another tech to log in to microsoft site and give her the up to date product key (or called cd key).

[UncleWede]

If you have to slave the hard drive into another computer, there is a little ~$10 adaptor to let you plug a laptop Hd into a regular tower.
Your other choice is to do the install of XP Home, but do a custom and install into something other than c:\windows, i.e. c:\windows2. the third option is there are external drive enclosures for laptop drives, that plug in via USB to another computer. this is more like $60.

[533ogetnom]

you can log in under safe mode without networking and i believe it will bypass the key check, but you wont be able to do much of anything

burn her crap to cd/dvds and do your home install of windows (i hope you dont use that windows version already as it will detect this when she goes to update and disable it)


does she have the cd that came with the laptop? it would be better to use that to reformat than your windows if you use it, most laptops come with a hidden partition that has a heavily compressed ghost of the data that comes when you buy it and you just have to hit a few keys to restore it on boot up (wipes everything else)



if you dont have a cd/dvd burner try just regular safe mode (not sure if that will work) and use a crossover cable (available somewhere) and connect that to your desktop or another laptop, it will mimic a connection through router and allow you to transfer files through shared folders

[BMW F22]

Originally Posted by 18LLC

I don't think sp2 needs the cd key, the tech must reinstall the whole windows. Does your gf's company use msdn? if so, tell her to ask another tech to log in to microsoft site and give her the up to date product key (or called cd key).

ohh oops. I thought the tech formatted the hdd and now it's asking for a product key (which I now realized that you need it when u first start the formatting process)

[FirstClass]

Originally Posted by just4kickz

...as long as you dont reformat the files will still be there...cant you just reinstall windows? i'm pretty sure it wont require you to reformat and lose saved files...

Nope, installing Windows requires a reformat of the drive you install to.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

Nope, installing Windows requires a reformat of the drive you install to.

True, it does require the initial format, but not true in this case, as the drive has already been formatted once to install XP Pro.

[scottwww]

Try going into the system BIOS and change the date to a couple weeks ago. Then see if you can login.

[scpage]

Use Knoppix Linux on a CD...boot from that CD, it should recognize your hard drive and other devices...copy the files onto a usb device, etc. Reinstall Windows.
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[just4kickz]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

Nope, installing Windows requires a reformat of the drive you install to.

...so then partition the hard drive and install an older copy of windows...

imo if your instaling over the windows, i'm not sure if your correct... i'd be almost the same as restoring the computer back to factory settings without deleting any crucial data... the files will be there but it wont be registered as programs or certain documents... so its kinda like having a map from the game counterstrike but the computer not knowing wtf it is because it doesnt have counterstrike installed.

[toofasttooslow]

If that activation key hasn't been used yet then you can just click on the 'activate online' button. If it has, select the 'activate by phone' and call M$ and tell them that you did a re-install of the OS on different hardware (this is important).They should then be able to supply you with the activation key.

[toofasttooslow]

Originally Posted by FirstClass

Nope, installing Windows requires a reformat of the drive you install to.

Not exactly. You can choose to install in the same partition as you have your other install. It's called dual booting and does not require a format.

[scottwww]

I still think your easiest solution is to change the system clock to a date that is less than 30 days since Windows was installed. Then the computer should startup just as if it was that date and the 30 day limit has not passed. It is an easy solution if it works for you to get to the files and burn them to CD.

[toofasttooslow]

Originally Posted by scottwww

I still think your easiest solution is to change the system clock to a date that is less than 30 days since Windows was installed. Then the computer should startup just as if it was that date and the 30 day limit has not passed. It is an easy solution if it works for you to get to the files and burn them to CD.

The Windows activation mechanism has its own internal clock which is not dependant on the system clock. (I know from experience that doesn't work)

[FirstClass]

Originally Posted by just4kickz

...so then partition the hard drive and install an older copy of windows...

imo if your instaling over the windows, i'm not sure if your correct... i'd be almost the same as restoring the computer back to factory settings without deleting any crucial data... the files will be there but it wont be registered as programs or certain documents... so its kinda like having a map from the game counterstrike but the computer not knowing wtf it is because it doesnt have counterstrike installed.

Ummm you do know that changing partitions requires a reformat, right?

Originally Posted by gum5h03

Not exactly. You can choose to install in the same partition as you have your other install. It's called dual booting and does not require a format.

You mean different partition, no?

[scottwww]

If you have a program like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic you can boot from it's CD, resize the existing partition, create a new primary partition, hide the original partition if needed (should not be necessary), install Windows on the new partition. Then you will just see the original partition as a D: drive in Windows Explorer. In the partitioning steps, you might do well to change the original partition to a logical drive in the extended partition (to do this, I think you also need to move the extended DOS partition to the end of the hard drive *******.

The setting the clock back thing is something I haven't tried myself (never needed to). I know somebody who does this successfully with Windows Vista on a "crash and burn" test system. I am surprised if this doesn't work with XP.

[FirstClass]

Originally Posted by scottwww

If you have a program like Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic you can boot from it's CD, resize the existing partition, create a new primary partition, hide the original partition if needed (should not be necessary), install Windows on the new partition. Then you will just see the original partition as a D: drive in Windows Explorer.

I take it you've never seen what Partition Magic does to computers when it screws up.