It’s a long story, but basically the hard drive on my friend’s computer ran out of space the other day. So in the end, we decided to buy a larger internal hard drive to replace the old one. Simple. So what’s next?
Well, after we installed the hard drive, we decided to use it as the main C: drive instead, and use the old one as a backup. That’s all good until we realize we can’t find my friend’s restore DVD. Fear not … as we still have his Windows Vista disc which came with the system (it’s a genuine copy may I add). However, the problem is … he upgraded his copy of Vista to Windows 7 Ultimate some time ago. And what’s worse, is that he upgraded it online and does not have the Windows 7 disc or the product/serial key.
So what do we do? Well, you can contact/phone the friendly people at Microsoft and the explain your situation, and hopefully they will be able to help (chances are you’ll be fobbed off).
Luckily for my friend, I was kind enough to lend him my Windows 7 disc …
But wait … isn’t that illegal? Well, the answer is NO. If I was to give my product/serial key to him to register and activate the Windows … then yeah, that would be illegal (I do not condone piracy).
Using someone else’s Windows disc to install Windows but using your own product/serial key, that to me is fine.
Now, we still have a problem … my friend does not have his Windows 7 product/serial key. He was never given one during the online upgrade by Microsoft.
So even if we use my Windows 7 disc to install Windows, he’ll be prevented to activate or run Windows properly after 30 days. He will be locked out until he enters a legitimate product/serial key and activate Windows online.
The Solution
After pondering over this issue, I realize that the old hard drive is running on Windows 7, and that product/serial key must still be on the system. After some research, I found a great way to extract his Windows 7 product/serial key from his old hard drive.
Follow these 3 simple steps!
- Download Produkey software here
- Install and run the application
- Extract the Windows product/serial key
Seriously, it couldn’t be simiplier than that … Get your product/serial key now by using ProduKey, and save it for future use … especially when you upgrade or re-install your Windows.
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