Yes know what you mean about the manufacturers who sell millions of
machines ,their license fee struture is different, which has probably
got something to do with the "other" product key.

The OP can recover the product ID, which is unique to each dvd - which
I suspect is what Microsoft will need in this case.


Actually , you can see the product ID easily on an installed version-
it is at the bottom of the system window ( press Windows and Break keys
together on your keyboard - System window will pop up).

They may ask you to install, skipping the product key , so you can find
this.

You can see how skipping the product key is achieved in the first part
of this tutorial , but I should wait to see if they need you to do this



So there is still plenty of hope.

SIW2


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SIW2

Hi Dpad,

You can get the Product key off the dead hard drive with this - you
should then have enough for microsoft to sort out whether you need a
different one because of what LVTravel pointed out :

'Magical Jelly Bean Software - Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v2.0.1'
(http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/)

Load Hive option - allows you to load the registry hive of another
Windows installation. To use, put the hard drive in a working machine
(must also be Windows 2000,XP or Vista) or use Windows PE (not tested,
should work) and click Load Hive. Then point it to the dead Windows
install. If you're using Windows Vista, Administrator rights are
required for this feature. You may have to right click on the Keyfinder
and run as Administrator.

Hope that helps

SIW2

Click the middle icon at top right of this post if it has helped -
thanks


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SIW2