vista cd key question

hello all i need some help please i am working on a guy my wife works withs
Laptop.
It has vista Premium on it it when it boots it goes to desktop as it loads
an error pops up system 32 config system protect dll acess denied i read after some googleing if thats a work it was eitheir a virus or the registray is corrupted i thought this is easy just reformat .
Well thats where the fun begins i said well do you have the recovery cd its a acer laptop. Well of course he dosent who ever does .I said to you have the cd key he said the what ?
Well mine is on the bottom of the lappy which is dumb palce for it but thats for another day .
Well the cd key sticker is gone of course . He said he would pay me $50 bucks to fix it i oculd really use the money guys and if i fix his maybe i could get some more work through that i mean that would pay the water and storage building alone lol anyway . Then he takes it to the pc guy down the road and said he told him he would do it for $40 but my wife brought it home today and said that he said he wanted to help up out :whistler:.

Well ok i said i dont want charity i thought that was pretty fair cd lost i can see that sticker torn off ok but je even lost the battery .
Thats a new one on me anyway guys is there anyway i can get the os reloaded or some thing theres no recovery partion .
I do have a windows 7 rc with a key i would give him for free he could at least use that till march i think .
Im just afraid the guy down the road well talk trash about it he dosent even know me really i dont want my first re p tpbe bad rep .
Any ideas

you screwed no key.. screwed.. you can try calling acer and asking for disks and the key agian but you need serial number just tell them he sticker is worn off...

ubuntu is free....

yeah i have unbutu alreday to go. I dont know if he is readfy for unbutu i may jsut give him my 7 disk and key that will get him through till thats what i dont understand if he dosent have the disc or key how that tech was going to do it for $40 i just dont ge it thanks +rep

can you log in to safe mode? just press f8 (at least thats what it is for xp and below, not sure about vista) when you get the windows splash screen and it should pull up a boot menu. try booting into safe mode and if it will, you then can run antivirus and malware software to check if its a virus. you can always try a boot disk if that doesnt work... or a live cd of linux too... just some suggestions. do you have a vista disc? I know with older versions of windows you can just try to repair the current install of windows not sure if you need the key for that I dont think so...

Hey Goat no cd i was searching cnet and found a program they said you could install and it would find the cd key for idopnt know if it works yes i can
get into safe mode the only problem is the anti virus wont be updated .
I ran it in safe mode for a while last night i got all the drivers for it last night .
I thought i might could run in safe mode a registry fix program anybody know of one that works. I have my vista cds but its for my hp laptop dont know anyone with OEM.
I called my wife a few mins ago she told him about the windows 7 rc i have
he said that would be fine isnt it going to be good till march ?
He said that would be fine but i would really like to get the vista going for him .
In hopes that he would spread the good word about me word of mouth goes a long way around here . Thanks and +rep goat

Here ya go:
Produkey

There's a lot of really nice little tools on that site for recovery of various keys/passwords/etc. And it's even a stand-alone executable, so you don't have to worry about installing something. I believe it also works in safe mode, but I'm not entirely sure on that.


As for the guy that would do it for $40, I'm guessing that either he has a utility that'll pull it, or he was just gonna put a cracked copy on the guy's laptop. There's a computer shop back ion my hometown that would do that all the time...how they're still in business I'll never know...

when i called and asked the guy told me $99 for the install i told him i had no cd or key he said it would be $200 plus 99 to install thanks for the link got the the cd key no problems now i just need to find a friend that has home prem on a disk i can borroww .
I told him i would put 7 on it till i could find a disc then put vista baxk on it i think thats a good deal for $50 myself thanks for the help +rep

x88x you know that cpu/mpbp combo i showed you know its not avalible either lol now im starting all over

Actually, every Vista disk has every version of Vista on it, so any full Vista install disc should work just fine.

cool i didnt know that now i just gotta get an oem vista

you need an oem copy, from acer, it is slightly different, it installs a licence for the bios, which windows then checks for, if it finds it, it checks if the key is valid for that oem, if so it activates its self no problems, doesen't even need the internet or telephone to work.

There are ways to install using a full install cd, you select home prem, don't enter a cd-key, install a licence, then enter the product key, and it then activates itself upon the next reboot,

All though it is a bit of a gray area so i won't link where to get the licences from as your not supposed to have them.

As said above, every full vista cd (Not OEM) has every version on them, when you enter the oem key it might see its an oem key and install the licence, i can't vouch for that though, can't hurt to try.

hey thanks so i would have to buy retail to get all the vistas on one disk

No, any non-proprietary copy of the disc will have all versions (retail/OEM/etc). Since you already have the license, you wouldn't have to buy a new disc (and license), just...acquire.. a disc, and use the license you already have. It's kinda legal gray area, but since you never really buy the software anyways, I don't really see the difference between getting a manufacturer to send you a disc or acquiring it through other means, assuming you already have a license.

agreed +rep