Error - install win 98 - product key (W98)

[finlost]

I was running win 98 on my pc a year or two ago but upgraded this to win 2000 a while back.

I still have the win 98 install disk, but the problem is that I no longer have the cd sleeve with the product key id, and because I have already installed win 2000 I dont think the product id for the win 98 installation will be in the reg anywhere..

Any ideas on how I can get my product id so I can install win 98 again??

[BertImmenschuh]

The Key is not in/on the CD but on the Certificate of Authenticity on the face of the book/manual or an orange sticker on the jewel case/sleeve that came with the CD, could even be the COA/CD Key sticker on an OEM computer. And you're right, it's no longer in the Registry.

You might look in the hard drive for files named rb000.cab, rb001.cab, etc., which are backup files for the Win98 registry. Don't know if they get deleted when upgrading but they are compressed copies of the files system.dat, user.dat, win.ini, and system.ini.

If the files still exist the system.dat file contains the CD Key but will require a text editor [not a word processor] such as Notepad [after extracting the system.dat file with WinZip] to search for the text ProductKey and the code will be there. The folder was C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP.

I used Notepad on my WinXP to read the file across the network on my wife's Win98SE.
Note, if you've converted/formatted the hard drive to NTFS with Win2000, you'll need to run fdisk from a Win98 boot disk to delete any NTFS/Non-DOS partitions and then recreate them as FAT32.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue> <font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>

[report_2]

C:\winbak contains system.dat and user.dat dated in 1999 long before I upgraded to Win98SE when I had Win98FE.

system.dat is over 2mb so I opened it in WordPad. In doing a search for "ProductKey" or 4 of the characters from the known product key it finds neither.

I also looked in user.dat and found nothing.

I also tried using Editor² and found nothing.

I am surprised I can find nothing.

(I have my keys)

All my .cabs in C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP are dated in the last week.

[BertImmenschuh]

I'm also surprised it didn't show up but I used WinXP's text editor - Notepad - which doesn't have the 64KB limit on file size that Win9x does, have opened much larger .txt files. Wordpad is a 'lite' word processor, can be some differences.

Go here <a target="_blank" href=http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html>http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html</a> and get EditPad Lite [free], it can open the system.dat file. Then do a search for ProductKey. I wouldn't do it on a 'live' registry file but instead make a copy on the Desktop to work in.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue> <font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>

[report_2]

I copied the current Sysetm.dat from C:\Windows to the Desktop.
Both EditPad Lite and Editor² find the ProductKey.

Of course it is my current ProductKey.

EditPad Lite does not find it in the one in WinBak so it apparently does not contain it.

I like EditPad Lite. It is much faster then Editor². Thanks for that. /images/forums/icons/smile.gif

[BertImmenschuh]

You're welcome, I like it too.

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue> <font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>