how to find/generate license key

superdave1984 · 01-05-2009, 11:44 AM

If this falls under the list of questions I can't ask, mods can delete thread.

This is for a purchased product, not pirated software. It was purchased several years ago but the key was on the original package and I can't find it. Have gotten a new PC for this department and need to reinstall software. It asks for key during install and then install stops because I don't have the key. Old PC died a horrible death and the HD is unreadable. How do I go about generating this key? The company says I will have to pay for the new key even though we have records showing purchase. They gave me some lame excuse about the software being outdated and they don't support it any longer, blah blah blah. Probably an attempt at getting us to purchase the new version. I am sure the key was in the license text somewhere, but the data is toast. And we won't get approval to spend the $499 bucks just for a replacement key (which they say will work on the old version that they no longer support).

CrazeD · 01-05-2009, 12:57 PM

If you can't access the old drive, you'd have to do illegal things that aren't allowed to be discussed here.

If you can access the old drive (which you said you can't, but I'll throw this out there) then check the registry for the key.

superdave1984 · 01-05-2009, 01:24 PM

I was afraid that it would be a taboo topic. Old drive is completely toast. I did download a demo version of the software, but you can't print anything from it which makes it almost useless. Thanks anyway.

office politics · 01-05-2009, 01:24 PM

still have the old drive? try spinrite, i hear it works wonders

GRC*|*Hard drive data recovery software**

Quote:

The opportunity for the first test appeared only one day after we received our copy of version 6. An 80GB hard drive on one of our busy storage servers decided to pack it in. Prior to trying SpinRite we were still able to access the drive intermittently but it was impossible to copy data or run a file undelete utility. A handful of important files had been written to the drive subsequent to the last backup the previous night; files which we needed within about 48 hours, which meant that a professional data recovery service (with its three week backlog) was out of the question. We removed the drive and installed it in an identical hardware configuration, then booted SpinRite 6 from CD and did a Level 2 recovery (see above for recovery level definitions). After 22 hours, SpinRite completed its work and pronounced the drive fully recovered. We reinstalled the drive in the original server. It ran perfectly, the research assistant who had created the required files copied them off the drive and that was that. Nice job SpinRite 6. The drive was still running fine as we went to publication with this review two weeks after the incident. We used a level 2 setting in SpinRite: Recover Unreadable Data.

superdave1984 · 01-05-2009, 10:34 PM

This drive was a victim of serious user error. She spilled coffee on the PC, it flowed into the case, she decided to open it up and try to dry it. It was still plugged in when she used a screwdriver with a paper towel around it to dry the board. You can guess the rest. It actually caught fire and the rest is ID10T history.

CrazeD · 01-05-2009, 11:32 PM

LOL!

What a horrific death.

kmote · 01-06-2009, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superdave1984

This drive was a victim of serious user error. She spilled coffee on the PC, it flowed into the case, she decided to open it up and try to dry it. It was still plugged in when she used a screwdriver with a paper towel around it to dry the board. You can guess the rest. It actually caught fire and the rest is ID10T history.

Woah I hope she's OK

Saxon · 01-06-2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by superdave1984

This drive was a victim of serious user error. She spilled coffee on the PC, it flowed into the case, she decided to open it up and try to dry it. It was still plugged in when she used a screwdriver with a paper towel around it to dry the board. You can guess the rest. It actually caught fire and the rest is ID10T history.

Oh my god that poor computer, Dave as the Head of the IT department for that hospital I order you to issue a warning to her an post a warning on the staff notice board say that she is not allowed within arms lenght of a computer if she goes near a computer you are going to remove her hands with a butter knife.

superdave1984 · 01-06-2009, 12:43 PM

She was fine. She grabbed the PC, ran out of the building and threw it into the pond. I knew she wanted a new computer, but ****...

Back to my problem. I used magisISO to turn the .exe into a text file. There's a few thousand pages there of CLSID's and other stuff. None of which work. I did find several keys which were expired however and changing a digit here or there changes the expire date but not the year. Surely there's a program that can decipher all that stuff.

Baez · 01-06-2009, 01:13 PM

lol this story could be a comedy skit.

You can try an .exe editor like Resource Hacker or PE Explorer. Executable files are not fun to work with though. It takes some time to learn and if you change something you shouldn't the executable is dead.

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