product key lost, with original CDs and Product ID?

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a Windows Media Center 2005 PC that I built with an online
integrator. My hardware failed and I needed to change motherboards, so I am
trying to repair the OS on the old harddrive with the new motherboard.
Unfortunately, I misplaced my product key sheet. To be clear, I bought and
own a copy of the OS and I still have the original CDs. On top of that, I
have my Product ID (which I got before I finally disconnected the old
computer -- it failed on the PCI bus, so it still booted, but the PCI cards
didn't work.)

I had, mistakenly, thought that the Product ID was the product key.
Clearly, it's not. Also, I can even produce the receipt from the purchase of
the OS, if necessary.

If there *any* way I can recover the product key from Microsoft?

I'm at my wits end, and I really don't want to buy a whole new copy of an
OS, when I'm looking at the pretty, holographic disks with all of the data
right now...

To top it off, this was a dedicated media server for the house, even with
media extenders... My whole family is without TV until I figure this out.
I'm hoping to maintain the install of the current OS, since I have everything
setup just so...

Any help would be *VERY* appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[Guest]

I had a similar problem a few years ago and needed to find my key. Someone
told me about a little program called ViewKeyXP and it worked great. I can't
remember where I found it, but I'm sure a google search would net the right
result.
Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I need to boot into Windows on the original PC in order to
make this work. Since I've already gotten through the install on the new
motherboard, I can't just plug it in to the old machine to get the product
key anymore. Maybe if I get find a way to make a bootable disk on the old PC
that let's me read the code off of the windows installation that isn't
currently booting?

I used a software package called KeyViewer on my office PC, and I typed in
the product ID, but the result wasn't correct, according to the install.

I'm really out of my head on this.

Thanks for the reply. Diana.

Any other ideas?

Dan.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I need to boot into Windows on the original PC in order to
make this work. Since I've already gotten through the install on the new
motherboard, I can't just plug it in to the old machine to get the product
key anymore. Maybe if I get find a way to make a bootable disk on the old PC
that let's me read the code off of the windows installation that isn't
currently booting?

I used a software package called KeyViewer on my office PC, and I typed in
the product ID, but the result wasn't correct, according to the install.

I'm really out of my head on this.

Thanks for the reply. Diana.

Any other ideas?

Dan.

 

[Guest]

Could it also be that I may need to generate a new product key from the
product ID but within the new machine by somehow booting into another OS
(Linux, which I know nothing about) or another Windows Install and using
software to find the product key?

I think I read that the relationship between the product key and the product
ID is hardware dependent, so maybe the product ID is stuck at the wrong thing
for the product key even *if* I could find the original key?

Thanks,
Dan.