windows install

[sgnlzero]

lost the boot sector on Win98 machine. Installed a new harddrive and am reinstalling Win98. Is there any way to retrieve the old Product ID from the old harddrive, it is still readable and the person I'm fixing this for cannot find his cd case w/product ID

[bonno]

i have a program that lets you read the win code from a dos prompt - windows has to still be installed on the hd for it to work i think.

any good to you?

bonno

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[BertImmenschuh]

I use a program called DOS Manager from www.softdisk.com that allows me to see inside a number of file formats, such as .exe, .dat, etc. and it will run from a boot floppy.

[sgnlzero]

that would prpbably do it as long as the code wasn't in the boot sector, but it's worth a try. Where could I get a copy?

[sgnlzero]

That should work nicely. Where can I find it?

[Mosaic1]

You say you lost the boot sector. Did you have a boot sector virus ? and/or have you tried booting with a bootdisk and executing this command:
fdisk /mbr
then performing a sys C:
Trying an overinstall of Windows on the drive may also rewrite the boot sector for you.
If you haven't yet, you may be able to salvage the install.

[Mosaic1]

To get the key, boot with a bootdisk.
CD windows
Execute this command:
regedit /e regkey.txt HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion
All one line. I know it doesn't appear that way here. Press enter.
This creates a txt file of the reg key containing the information you want.
Next, type
edit regkey.txt and press enter
The file will open in the text editor.
The information will be in this file.