Now that I'm done freaking out...

[ViRaL1]

Thanks to laziness and poor organizational skills, I was searching high and low in my apartment for the COA for my weeks old copy of Window$ XP Media Center Edition 2005 for which I had shelled out $130+. I couldn't find it anywhere and was starting to freak out because I wasn't sure what to do if I DIDN'T find it. Luckily, thanks to those more lazy than myself (i.e. my friendly local garbage men who normally come Monday and Thursday but decided they were owed Monday off since New Years Day was on Saturday ) I was able to pull out my bags off refuse and dig through it, finding my COA with the product key. As I gasped a sigh of relief the question still stuck in my head. If I really WERE to lose my COA and my key (which will now be stored several places via email), how would I go about getting it again from a non-functional PC? I do have a keyfinder that should work fine if I was actually able to boot into XP, but the reason I was reinstalling was because my system would continually reboot after the splash screen. Are there any bootable utilities to recover the key from a non-booting OS or even something thaty could retrieve my key if I were to slave my boot drive into another PC?

TIA

[rallynavvie]

I lost my XP Pro disc once (still had the COA sticker on the inside of the case bezel) and had to shell out $40 to M$ to get a new one sent. When I got the MCE disc I used 2-sided tape to stick the COA sticker with its backing to the inside of the computer is was being used in so that I could move it later if I wanted to. Safest place is in the computer you're using it on, I like to hide it inside the removable front bezel of my cases. Less likely to get rubbed off or worn in there.

As for getting a new key issued I would think it would be as simple as mailing the install CD back to M$ and paying the return postage for the new disc.

[ViRaL1]

So it's nothing that could be done over the phone? I did register, so they know I own it, and since it's OEM I figured it was non-transferrable and useless to anyone else but me, but not certain.

[gmatov]

Actually, that is not OEM, that is Original Equipment Manufacturer, meaning it is keyed to one brand of computer, Compaq, Dell, HP, whatever. They will install onto some othar of those singular machines, not cross install. They see the BIOS and allow you to install.

you said you paid 130 for it, so, yes, if someone had a copy of the OS and your key, it could install. Retail version.

Whether there is an extract tool or not, I don't know. Be a little more paranoid, in future. Write it down in a safe place, keep the original wrapper, etc.

Cheers,

George

[tmaxwell2435]

NM................

[BJ_M]

Actually, that is not OEM, that is Original Equipment Manufacturer, meaning it is keyed to one brand of computer, Compaq, Dell, HP, whatever. They will install onto some othar of those singular machines, not cross install. They see the BIOS and allow you to install.

you said you paid 130 for it, so, yes, if someone had a copy of the OS and your key, it could install. Retail version.

Whether there is an extract tool or not, I don't know. Be a little more paranoid, in future. Write it down in a safe place, keep the original wrapper, etc.

Cheers,

George

not all OEM versions are keyed to a brand --