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    faded product key; acer support?

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by leif2, Mar 26, 2012.

  1. leif2

    leif2 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Id like to reinstal w7 premium on my 1410 acer with my key but the product key on laptop is partially faded. Original hardrive failed so I have no way to get this info off my old hardrive unfortunantly. Here is my key below with ? for uncertain characters. I have a pretty good idea what 3 of the 6 faded characters are. Will I be able to guess missing values? Is there a system in place so for the missing characters I can have a good guess what they be? Or Someway to illuminate faded values? Can I call microsoft with this incomplete key? Does anyone know if acer will be able to help me?
     
  2. downloads

    downloads No, Dee Dee, no! Super Moderator

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    Key removed.
     
  3. oldcartfan

    oldcartfan Notebook Guru

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    Why Microsoft uses such fragile key labels is beyond me!

    And Acer seems to put it in the worst place for it to wear off!

    If you were still able to boot into Windows, there are legitimate "key recovery" programs out there that could help you. I've used them on home computers where we lost the original OS system disks or when there were no key labels for the upgraded OS that I needed to reinstall.

    But if your original hard drive is now unreadable, they are probably not all that helpful.

    With a bad hard drive, I probably would start with Microsoft. Explain the situation and see if they will provide a (hopefully free) solution.

    If they are not any help, you might try a Google search on "Windows Key Recovery". I've found the folks over at Windows 7 Forums to also be very knowledgeable and helpful, when they realize you asking for a legitimate key recovery.


    (Thankfully, I wrote my Windows key down before the label totally faded off my Acer Extensa's key label. I did it right after I made my system back up DVDs, when I first bought the laptop.)
     
  4. leif2

    leif2 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I pleaded my case at w7 forum and they banned me permanently reason said -was for using a non legit windows. Talk about harsh. I didn't even put the w7 ultimate on my machine I got it that way. The reason I started thread there was so I could have the iligit windows removed. I called microsoft and they said to call ACER. Anyone know if ACER will help? Will windows key recovery or any such utility be useful since my hardrive never had an authentic key input in?
     
  5. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    Hi!

    Do you have recovery media (apart from the now gone recovery partition) for that laptop? If so, recovering the OS from these discs (I know these units don't have an optical drive, so you need something external) should also recover the preinstalled license.

    Since this is an OEM version of Windows, Acer is the only one who is obliged to give support. You might contact them for recovery media.

    Michael
     
  6. leif2

    leif2 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think you missed the part where I swapped out my hardrive? Or did I miss something?
     
  7. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    The latter applies. I was asking for "recovery media (apart from the now gone recovery partition) for that laptop". A set of optical media or the ISOs on an external HDD.

    Michael
     
  8. leif2

    leif2 Notebook Enthusiast

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    so I can request this from acer and it will work? Since theres only 2 or 3 charachters really hard to see on my key I can keep on guessing them during activation right? And download a W7 iso online from microsoft and run it off a external hardrive right?
     
  9. Bronsky

    Bronsky Wait and Hope.

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    For $20 Acer will sell you recovery disks for your 1410T that will bring it back to factory settings.