Windows 7

IAmJacksGame

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I had my PC built by a friend a few years ago when BF3 came out and he upgraded my windows. Now that I bought a new hard drive I re-downloaded Windows 7 to my PC but I don't have the product key. Is there anybody out there that can help me out with a key, please.

Thanks
 
Do you still have your old hard drive? If so you might be able to get the key. If your friend didn't give you a sticker or a key then it was probably created with a key gen/activator.
 
Key is going to be fun lol the Disc is easy as you can actually get the disc image from Microsoft.

OEM Keys which are bound to the motherboard they are installed on (99 bucks) will not work if the install was from a retail disc/disc image. So depending on what you installed it from if you went out and bought a system builder license to take care of this you would still end up reinstalling.

The keys on prebuilt computers are meaningless. The activation is actually tied to the SLIC table in the bios, the key itself is not... of any use to even the system its attached to for the most part.

You can run the machine for 180 days as long as you do not try to put a key in. You put a key in you go from 30 days to like 2 or 3. But you can do a rearm 3 times before you exhaust so until you get your situation figured out, literally just sit on it.
 
Do you still have your old hard drive? If so you might be able to get the key. If your friend didn't give you a sticker or a key then it was probably created with a key gen/activator.
Not sure how he did it. I didn't get a sticker.
 
So am I fucked here? I'm not a techie so i'm not really sure how to proceed.

I would proceed by not panicking and trying any old key as that could mean a resinstall in the next couple days (or dealing with genuine messages every 2 hours instead).

I will message you what you can in the mean time. There is always cracking it but I don't condone it. No old hard drive with the install still on it? Chances are you need a new key. It could have been a cracked install though.

I say this as an absolute hater of Windows 8, might be the time to go ahead and upgrade to 8.1. It boots to desktop, only thing missing right now is the start menu itself. You can get a replacement for the start menu or treat the start screen like an android phone and put all your desktop icons on it. I am currently on the 90 day enterprise trial I need to pick up a copy pretty soon.
 
I have re-installed my OEM Windows 7 over and over again on different drives over the years with no problems.
 
Windows 8/8.1 really is fantastic for gaming. Fast boot, great CPU core usage, etc. Once you replace the stupid new start menu with classic and disable all the side hotspot stuff you are good to go.
 
I will say the ui is garbage, everything else works wonders.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
I have re-installed my OEM Windows 7 over and over again on different drives over the years with no problems.

Different drives is fine, did you change motherboards entirely though? Most people have said all it took was a call, but it comes down to at the end of the day the official policy is no and they can say that which is why I always against spending half on an OEM copy and having to buy again at any point. But as i said no one ever seems to have a problem for some reason. Its often easy enough to replace with the same motherboard after a failure without any trouble.
 
I called today and got my win8 key reactivated on my new build. Automated system said no. The human said yes.

Sent via Tapatalk carrier pigeon via Nexus 5.
 
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