Windows 7 product key is one character short it seems??

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robodelfy

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May 20, 2013
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Hi

I have just formatted my girlfriends laptop and reinstalled windows 7 ultimate. There is no windows product key sticker anywhere on the laptop or under the battery etc. so I used a program to find the product keys on the computer, which it seemed to do fine.

When I entered the product key just now it says it is wrong. I also tried it online and realised it is only 24 characters long, and the last group of characters seems to be one short. This is very odd as I just copied it straight from the program so have no idea how I could have deleted one character!

I tried entering every different letter and number on the end as I thought surely it had to be one of them. But that didnt work!!

Any ideas what I can do? I'm in a bit of a desperate hurry as she leaves the country in a few days and I thought I was doing her a favour but now seem to be in a mess!!!

- Is there any other way to find my product key now I have formatted?
- Why did trying every letter and number on the end not work?

Thanks :)
 
Solution
USAFRet
A "small cheap Acer" would not have come with Win 7 U. The license alone is worth more than the laptop was.

Genuine laptop or not...that is not a genuine Win 7 license.
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if you left the partion alone on all newer laptop is the vendor restore software. if you run the restore it wont need a key code as it flashed into the laptop bios. if you killed all of the partions you have too call or email laptop vendor for a restore disk or a link to download an make a new iso usb stick.
 
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Its an Acer laptop, there was strangely no restore feature anywhere to be found. Thats why I had to delete everything and download the Windows 7 ISO and burn it to DVD.

The windows ultimate was already installed, what do you mean its an unusual license for a laptop?
 
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Win 7 Ultimate is an expensive license. Like 2-3 times as much as Home or Pro.
Which would have resulted in a much larger cost when you bought it.

The vast majority of laptops are bought with a Home or Pro license. Not Ultimate.
You bought this laptop brand new?

Additionally...a new laptop must include either the actual OS reinstall DVD, or a Factory Reset partition. Per MS licensing.
 
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So my girlfriend bought the laptop when she lived in thailand for 7 years. She said it was from a proper shop, which there are plenty of official shops with genuine laptops. But asking her more questions I am a bit dubious about this shop! But she cant remember as it was 7 years ago!

It is a small cheap acer notebook, so it does seem odd to have windows 7 ultimate on it, and there was definitely no restore or anything Acer related in the start menu, which was odd. Also no recovery partition.

But still, it seems odd that using one of those programs that finds the product key woudl return a key which was one character short?! I feel that maybe I must have deleted that last character somehow. But then as I said it didnt work trying every letter and number!

Its a bit of a mystery. I am considering buying her a new laptop as this one is on the way out, and I doubt will last another year, the battery doesnt hodl a charge, touchpad is dodgy.

Could anyone reccomend a really cheap laptop....she just browses the web and watches some movies etc. I am a mac user now and I am overwhelmed by the choice of PC laptops and brands!!

Thanks for all your help
 
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I downloaded the iso from a site that i used before with no problems. I dont think there is anything dodgy at all about the ISO. But yes I have realised there is the official microsoft site that needs the product key which
 
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