Windows 10: Finding W7 Activation Number without being able to Boot from the Drive

I have several old Hard Drives from PC's I can no longer Boot from.

Is there a way to find and record the Activation Number without being able to Boot from their C: Drives?

Can I use a Hard Drive Dock of some sort and scan the Drive for the Activation Number with software?

I use the term Activation Number because I do not know what else to call it.

It's the Number you enter to Activate Windows / make Windows valid.

ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated!

:)

 

Finding W7 Activation Number without being able to Boot from the Drive

That is how Windows 10 activation works, but it worked differently in Windows 7.

It's called the product key. ShowKeyPlus can retrieve the key from an offline system such as this one.





It can also check the edition of the key you have retrieved, just type it in..





An OEM:SLP (System Locked Pre-install) key such as this one is a generic key used by the OEM in all their pre-installed Window 7 images. It can only activate on the machine it was designed for, it requires a matching SLP marker from the same OEM to be present in the bios. When present Window 7 self-activates automatically without having to contact the activation servers.


As dalchina rightly says, only a Retail key would be transferable to another machine.

 

Finding W7 Activation Number without being able to Boot from the Drive

I have several old Hard Drives from PC's I can no longer Boot from.

Is there a way to find and record the Activation Number without being able to Boot from their C: Drives?

Can I use a Hard Drive Dock of some sort and scan the Drive for the Activation Number with software?

I use the term Activation Number because I do not know what else to call it.

It's the Number you enter to Activate Windows / make Windows valid.

ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Finding W7 Activation Number without being able to Boot from the Drive

Dalchina and Bree,

Thank you for your responses / suggestions!

If I understand you correctly, I can retrieve the Product Key(s) I am looking for by using a USB Drive Dock and Software products such as: Magic Jelly Bean / KeyFinder or ShowKeyPlus.

These Software products should return the Product Key(s) that I am looking for assuming the resources from the Hard Drives I want to search, are in tack.

I am anxious to try your suggestions and will report back after I try them later today.

Best regards,


PS Now I know I should be using the term Product Key for the item I am looking for.

- - - Updated - - -

As a test, I used KeyFinder on the C:\ drive of our running PC, this is what it found:

Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1
Product Part No.: X15-37377
Installed from 'OEM' media.
Product ID: XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX match to CD Key data
CD Key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Computer Name: LAUNDRYROOM
Registered Owner: Camille
Registered Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company

This is just what I wanted - Thanks again!

I will set up my external USB Dock and try it on the Drives in question.