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My SSD gave up a little while back and I would like to recover my Win 7 Product Key from the drive. Even using recovery software, I was unable to recover my Windows/System32/config directory which I think would have been useful for programs like ProduKey mentioned in this product key recovery question.

However, interestingly, I was able to recover my Windows/System32/config/RegBack folder. Is there any way to get at the key from these files? I can't seem to use them with ProduKey directly.

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  • I had more time to work on this and still no luck. Any way to read a back -up registry and get the product key out of it?
    – rhaskett
    Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 19:51

2 Answers 2

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If this an OEM Windows 7, then the product key that's in the system will not be of any use. That is a generic key used at the factory to activate thousands of systems. The key that counts for this PC is on the COA sticker which looks like this.

enter image description here

This sticker is on the bottom of laptops or in the battery compartment. On desktops it is usually in the back.

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  • mmm... so I built this pc 5 years or so ago. I have an "OEM system Builder License". Stupidly, I kept the CD and the manual and wrote some ten alpha-numeric code on the back of it, but not the packaging.
    – rhaskett
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 5:29
  • Or the top. System builder licences do come with 'real' product keys, just much simpler packaging/
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 6:32
  • Hmm, in other words you lost the product key. But did you try this ==> nthelp.com/Win98_product_key_recovery.htm
    – whs
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 18:39
  • Ok I tried this. The backup registry is not in a readable form.
    – rhaskett
    Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 19:50
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The product key was recoverable. While the backup SOFTWARE file was not readable in its form (thanks for the idea though @whs), there is a utility called MiTec that can read the file. The product key can be extracted from the Windows Installation tag in the program.

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