Lost windows 7 home basic serial number

Markshelbygt500

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510
I have a laptop which i bought about 4 years ago with windows 7 home basic on it, about a year ago it booted up 1 day and it said that it was and unregisterd version and that it had lost its serial, i google it and apparently some malware had deleted the activation code, hmm simple i'll jus turn over the laptop and put the code back in! But where ive been using the laptop on my sofa arm its rubbed away the sticker. So i got on to microsoft and the wanted like £100 or something to get a new code! I googled a fix and used something called 'remove wat' which allowed me to use the computer fairly normally. Today my 4 yr old was playing on the cbeebies website and the computer randomly shut itself down and when it booted back up i had the same problem! I tried remove wat again but it didnt work!

So i thought i'd try to reset the computer to factory settings, after an hour or so it cam up saying recovery not complete, wouldnt give me any details or log file. When i try to reboot now it comes up with the screen to do a recovery it wont let me boot up at all. Im guessing that the restore to factory settings dint work because its lost the activation code?
 
In cases where the original COA (certificate of authenticity) sticker is missing or damaged, I usually use a utility to extract the 25-digit code from the Windows registry. If the code is no longer in the Windows registry, and your code is worn from the bottom of the machine, you may be flat out of luck.

We can not help you in illegally bypassing the activation requirements for Windows. And neither we nor Microsoft can simply issue you a new code.

I can link you to the utility I usually use, however, as it doesn't hurt to try. It is called, Magic Jelly Bean key finder, and all you need is the basic version.

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/downloads/KeyFinderInstaller.exe

I make no guarantees it will find your code, but if it does, write the thing down someplace safe, and then I strongly recommend completely reinstalling your OS.
 

Markshelbygt500

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510

Thanks for your reply, i have tried something like that in the past and it vouldnt find the registry files! At the moment my main concern is that i cant boot up the laptop, as it comes up with the hp system restore screen every time
 
Actually, if you could restore the laptop to it's original, factory default, you may be in luck. Most restore routines from OEM providers such as HP use a generic key that allows them to automate the installation and restore processes. This key is different than what you find on your unique sticker. Understand that most restore operations will wipe out any user data that is on the computer, so you will need to have made backups of any personal data you wish to keep.
 

Markshelbygt500

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510

Ye ive backed it all up, but like i said for some reason it wont reatore to factory settings im guessing coz its missing the registry files!?!
And its just stuck when booting up on a system restore options screen??? Any help with that part?
 
A proper factory restore does not utilize your installed copy of Windows. It runs from a separate partition or disc than your primary boot drive and simply removes everything from the boot partition and copies an image of the original software to the boot partition. Essentially the machine should be as if you first pulled it out and powered it on, after a proper factory reset.
 

Markshelbygt500

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
5
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10,510
Ok an update now, i found somewhere on here where u can download the iso of windows 7. I burned it to dvd and changed bios to boot from cd/dvd. I then attempted to 'repair' windows?! Which again was unsuccesful. So i decided to reinstall windows! When it asked for the activation code it said 'get later when online' or something and bingo all sorted i then downloaded a program which told me the activation code and wrote it down lol.

The only problem i have is that the version on windows i downloaded must have been slightly different to the original, and it now has 2 versions installed. So when i first start up the laptop it still says 'no serial' or something!

Does anyone no why this is?


Thanks