Retriving a Serial Key

[Squid_uk]

I recently lost all the data on my hard drive

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279337&highlight=

After sending my drive to a retrieval company I now have the old data on a new drive in my system the problem is, about 4-5 months before I lost the data I purchased TMPGEnc Xpress, I had the serial key saved in my Outlook folders, after the drives fried I lost all emails, I have tried contacting Pegasys but I only seem to get an email confirming they have received mine (this was about 2 weeks ago), do you guys know of any way I could retrieve my Serial Keys without having to pay again?

[thecoalman]

in my Outlook folders, after the drives fried I lost all emails,

If they retrieved all the data from the drive you can still access those e-mails. Not sure of the exact procedure but the e-mail files havea .dbx extension for each box you had. inbox.dbx, deleted.dbx etc...

I'd imagine you could just find the filename that contained your passwords from the restored data and rename it restore.dbx. Copy it to the folder that contains your new account...

Look around because I'm not sure if that is the correct way to do it.

[Squid_uk]

I found the folders.dbx file but i didnt seem to do the job

[thecoalman]

I found the folders.dbx file but i didnt seem to do the job

Well it's in there, that's the data files for OE. You only have to figure out how to open them. Yopu may have to do something along the lines of creating a new user account and then copy the entire contents of the recovered folder to the new folder... may even be able to access it through OE somehow... dig around I'm sure you'll find something.

Try this.... create a new box in OE named restore close it out then copy your old file renamed restore.dbx to the new folder.

BTW if you break anything don't blame me... :P I'm just guessing but I'm pretty sure I did the same thing or simialr years ago.

[Squid_uk]

Not sure im quite understanding this could you please give a bit more detail?

[thecoalman]

Open up OE and create a new box called restore, this will create a new file called restore.dbx in your active OE folder. Close OE.

From your recovered files find the box where your passwords were stored, such as if you had them in inbox it would be inbox.dbx.

Make a copy of that and rename it restore.dbx

Copy that restore.dbx to your active OE folder, you'll have to overwrite restore.dbx which you created in step one.

[Squid_uk]

When you say create a new box do you mean a new folder?

[thecoalman]

BTW there is a "import messages" on the file menu, you might be able to point that at the recovered files too. Whatever you do make sure you don't delete or overwrite the recovered data.

[thecoalman]

When you say create a new box do you mean a new folder?

Yes I can be confusing at times sorry.... I know what I mean tho..

[Squid_uk]

thats ok i'll give it a go

[thecoalman]

BTW I just looked and that should work. You may have to do this though to complete the folder creation I mentioned first.

3) For each new folder you have created you *must* highlight it - select it with your mouse as if you were going to see what is inside it. We know it is empty, but Outlook Express will not create the .dbx file until you do this.

So if there's no restore.dbx file to overwrite in the active OE folder you'll probably have to do that too.

[Squid_uk]

Tried that but unfortunatly it didn't work

[thecoalman]

Make sure the file does have the property "read only" too, anyway there's many articles describing what I have above.... Google is your friend.

[Squid_uk]

Tried that too but no luck, i dont know if it matter but the files seem to be the same size, surely if i had messages saved in the old drive the file size would be larger

[ozymango]

Tried that too but no luck, i dont know if it matter but the files seem to be the same size, surely if i had messages saved in the old drive the file size would be larger

Yeah, Outlook (and Outlook Express) can store the message folders in different places depending on your OS and a bunch of other stuff. For starters, was this a Windows 98, or 2K/XP machine when it died?

If it's 2K or XP, hopefully they recovered your profile folders because that's where Outlook puts your personal mail folders -- you'll find other .dbx folders in different folders but they don't belong to you. Yeah, it's a pain.

So assuming you've got XP or 2K and they copied over all the folders, what you need to look for is in the "Documents and Settings" folder (that was recovered, hopefully!), and inside that there'll be a folder that corresponds to your login name, assuming you created a login name and didn't just have an auto-login with Administrator or something. Well, in any case, look in the "Documents and Settings" folder from the recovered drive and in there you should find a folder with your login name on it. If not, check each folder in "Documents and Settings" and then drill down through more and more subfolders in the following order -- and if your system isn't set to view hidden files and folders, you should probably enable that option, just in case:

- Username folder, then inside that:
- Local Settings folder, then inside that:
- Application Data folder, then inside that:
- Identities folder, then inside that:
- A folder named {whole long string of numbers and characters}, there's only one of these folders so whatever it is, open it, then inside that:
- Microsoft folder, then inside that:
- Outlook Express, then inside that:
- Finally here should be a bunch of .dbx folders that you can then import into your current version of Outlook Express and that's your personal mail store.

Although looking back I see you wrote "Outlook" email, not "Outlook Express," so this may not work for you. Drat. Well, if you are using Outlook, let us know what version, plus the version of the OS on your old hard drive, and we can tell you where to dig for messages.

Good luck!

[Squid_uk]

Ozymango, Both systems were running on XP and Outlook Express, the guide to where i can find the file is where i was actually copying them from

[ozymango]

Ozymango, Both systems were running on XP and Outlook Express, the guide to where i can find the file is where i was actually copying them from

Well, crap.

Do you have more than one user folder in the "Documents and Settings" folder? If so, I'd try doing this with every user name and see if it's in there somewhere. Grasping at straws, I know, but hey, can't hurt.

[Squid_uk]

i only have 1 user name on the system so i think that idea is pants, my fault really should have saved the key somewhere safe, you would happen to know a telephone number i could call for TMPGEnc in the UK?

[ozymango]

i only have 1 user name on the system so i think that idea is pants, my fault really should have saved the key somewhere safe, you would happen to know a telephone number i could call for TMPGEnc in the UK?

Checking at pegasys-inc.com, all I see is a number in Japan and a local address there. So you may just have to keep up the email barrage until somebody gets back to you.

There may be a way to get around this, however, if luck is with us and your old registry is still intact (or mostly intact). Tmpgenc stores the authorization info in the registry as a hashed file, it's not just the serial number but some kind of unique system ID. Now, if we can extract the old info from the old registry and import it into your current system, that should fix things. I hope. Should work. I haven't tried this with tmpgenc, but I've used it some other times for other software, depending how weird and complicated their authorization settings are.

You can actually "see" the old registry settings for your previous software by opening your old hard disc files and browse to:

Windows folder (old hard drive)/System 32/Config

and in there should be a file named simply "SOFTWARE" with no extension. That's the registry info for software installed on your old hard drive.

You should be able to open this with a text editor (Wordpad or Notepad or your favorite text editor) and do a search for "Pegasys Inc." and there should be key entries for "TMPGEnc 3.0 Express" -- and one of those entries should be a very long key entry for "authorization code" or something like that.

Assuming you find that, GREAT! Then we just have to export/import these settings into your current registry ... which isn't too difficult but I can't think of an easy way to describe it at the moment (coffee hasn't kicked in yet) so I'll wait on describing the next step until we can confirm or deny your old registry info is intact enough to do this.

Here's crossing my fingers!

Oh, and if you find it, DON'T TELL US WHAT IT IS!!! Nefarious peoples could use that number for evil, not for good. Just let us know if and when you find it and we can go from there.

[Squid_uk]

Ok i have found that SOFTWARE file managed to open it with note pad opens showing loads of characters but CAN find TMPGEnc Xpress codes but not sure which one it is

[ozymango]

Ok i have found that SOFTWARE file managed to open it with note pad opens showing loads of characters but CAN find TMPGEnc Xpress codes but not sure which one it is

Okay, good, we might be on to something here ... now, how to do this ... ...

Well, we'll need to open your system registry, if you've never done this before go slow but don't panic, we wont' break anything! I hope. :P Seriously, this won't hurt anything else and the worse that'll happen is, it just won't work. Bummer. But let's think positive for now.

Okay, do exactly as I describe below and this should work. Have you ever played around in the registry before? If not ... well, I guess you'll have to trust me. But seriously, this won't hurt anything. But go slow.

Okay, in your text editor you'll need to dig around a bit but you should find a bunch of entries that look very much like this -- the most important part is the part in brackets because we're going to copy and paste a bunch of stuff here:

*****

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress\Activate]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

*****
Copy whatever you find that have these exact headings, including the brackets into a new page, just a blank txt page, and include all entries under each heading. Still with me?

Then, keep digging through the file and you should also find additional entries with the following heading:

*****

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
"RegistrationCode"=(some really long string of numbers)

*****

There may be other entries under this key, the key being the part between the brackets. Copy this text exactly as it appears in your text window, include all the brackets and everything, and past this into the same txt document you created just a few minutes ago. So, when done, you should have a text file that looks something like this:

****
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress\Activate]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
"RegistrationCode"=(some really long string of numbers)
... and possibly moe entries under this heading

*****

If you see a whole bunch of entries that contain long strings of numbers and/or text, go ahead and copy and paste all of that into your txt file, they may contain some registration info, who knows ... anyway it won't hurt to have them.

Once you've done all that, save this file as a txt type file with the name "tmpgencimport.reg" or whatever you want to call it, the important part is to use the extension ".reg" and make sure you're saving in ASCII text mode, plain text mode, whatever.

Then, when you've saved it (somewhere you can find it!), make sure you've exited your TMPGenc program, and double click on the "tmpgencimport.reg" file -- the system will prompt you if you want to add this info to the registry (and possibly give you dire warning about killing your system, pay them no mind!), go ahead and do it, then fire up TMPGenc 3.0 and see if it works.

Hopefully, the answer will be a resounding yes. Worst case scenario, it'll just ask you to reenter your serial number and we're back at the start.
Bummer.

Anyway, give it the ol' college try and tell us what happens!

[Squid_uk]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress\Activate]
... there will be an entry, perhaps several, under this heading

****

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Pegasys Inc.\TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress]
"RegistrationCode"=(some really long string of numbers)

Im having trouble trying to find these entries,

this is an example of what i can find,

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[Entries]

This is what the whole document consists of, am i on the right track?

[Squid_uk]

UPDATE:

According to the TMPGEnc Xpress help pages:

• License information are contained in the TMPGEnc3XP.lic file;
• License information are contained in the TMPGEnc3XP.lic file. This file includes the license information and computer peculiar information, do not erase or provide this file to another person (Precautions have been taken to avoid problem in case of computer parts change);

I have had a look at this file using note pad but all it shows are squares, could this help in anyway?

[ozymango]

UPDATE:

According to the TMPGEnc Xpress help pages:

• License information are contained in the TMPGEnc3XP.lic file;
• License information are contained in the TMPGEnc3XP.lic file. This file includes the license information and computer peculiar information, do not erase or provide this file to another person (Precautions have been taken to avoid problem in case of computer parts change);

I have had a look at this file using note pad but all it shows are squares, could this help in anyway?

YES!!! Whew, I thought "Oh crap" when I saw the text you found, it's not in txt format and I don't want you to do a raw import of the entire software registry cuz that could cause ... interesting behavior.

All you should need to do is copy the tmpgenc3xp.lic file you found in your old hard drive files, into the "same" folder on the new drive. Fr'instance, if you found that .lic file in /windows/system32 in the old hard drive files, then copy this file to /windows/system32 in the new hard drive, just drag and drop. If it's in /program files/pegasys/tmpblah blah blah, copy it there.

And that should do it! I guess tmpgenc doesn't put the serial key into the registry, it reads a license file ... which makes sense if this has to "validate" across the network every now and then (I thought it does that, anyway).

So try that, you may have to restart the computer to make any settings take effect, then launch tmpgenc again and that should do it. I think. Good luck!

EDIT: Okay, found my copy, it's in the folder:

c:/Documents and Settings/myusername/Application Data/Pegasys Inc/TMPGenc3XP.lic

You will need to be able to view hidden files and folders to "see" this folder in your new hard drive; then, just copy the .lic file from your old drive files to this location in your new drive.

[Squid_uk]

Ozymango:



I LOVE YOU!!!

[ozymango]

Hey, all in a day's work for a genius like me!

Seriously, glad I was finally able to help!!!!

[outlook_12345]

Users are sure to find in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, to solve XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXcontrol XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXfolder.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
NO ADVERTISING: THIS INCLUDES PRODUCT PLACEMENTS BY COMPANY SHILLS
/ Moderator offline

[jollyjohn]

Hey, all in a day's work for a genius like me!

Seriously, glad I was finally able to help!!!!

Ozymango, you are good mate. I followed this thread with great interest. I am absolutly overwhelmed. Well done mate.
John