G71 Windows 7 key worn out?

So, the laptop that my wife uses (my old G71-340US) i had to re-install windows because she downloaded some crap software and it just chewed up everything.

now, i dont have the factory "restore" disk's, because, well they are all garbage anyways, and i always keep a basic windows re-install disk handy anyways.

The windows 7 key sticker on the bottom is worn out, and i cant read it (at all). i had it written down on a scratch pad, but i must have gotten some of the letters wrong (it was already pretty worn when i copied it) and its giving me a "this copy of windows is not genuine" BS.

i've contacted HP about it, and they wanted to just sell me a $20 set of recovery disks. i said F that, i dont want the garbage HP disk's that'll prolly install more bloatware to begin with, and probably not work since i completely wiped the hard drive.

any idea's?

 

The recovery discs should work even when the HDD is wiped.

Buy them, install win7 using those disks. Then use activation backup software to backup the activation (the key and the MS cert).

Then use your other win7 disk to perform a clean install, but dont type in a key.

Just use the activation backup software to activate offline and you're done.

 

You have a OEM PC so thanks to your bios you can install and activate any version of Windows 7, you just have to know how to backup the certificate and serial and install them on your current OS

 

HI
Did you manage to get your old G71 back up and running with the windows 7 serial that was on the base of your laptop

Do you know if you had a pre installed recovery manager installed
if so i believe that pressing F11 or Esc + F11 on startup
may take you into the
recovery manager

by re installing the os you may then be able to use something like
Winkeyfinder ( Free to download) to find your windows key

 

You can try ABR The way this software is suppose to work is you should have used it before you used the windows re-install disc, so once you used the windows re-install you'd just run it and it would activate automatically. But I used it the way you're going to have to and it wrote a notebook file with the key, which I copied and pasted in the activation key page and it work, I hope this works for you.

 

yea rather than do all that i just did what ricktendo said using the certificate. the mobo on that laptop is SLIC 2.1 compatible so its just a matter of getting the manufacturers certificate and installing it. apparently manufacturers dont actually load the CD key thats on the sticker to your laptop when assembled, they use a mass install certificate key.

i actually tried recovering with the software. it made no difference because the key that was loaded was the same mass-used OEM key/cert, not the sticker on the bottom.

 

I don't know if you're answering my post in the "quote" above or not, but if you got a key when using that software it should of activated. I actually tried what was on the bottom of my laptop because this is a newish laptop not even a year old and it wouldn't work, it would only worked as I described above, go figure.