Hi all,

A very computer illiterate couple asked me to come in and resolve some virus issues, etc. I cleaned up quite a bit, but still had slow behavior on their system. I ran sfc /scannow on their system, and then asked them for their CD's (They have XP Media Center Edition). They told me they had thrown out all their software CD's and manuals, once it had been installed! I explained that there are license keys with the disks, and if something should happen (like this) they need to install their software again.

So, in light of their predicament, I dropped in my XP Pro CD. Having never run sfc before, I thought it was going to check the files against the internal cache of system files, but it instead appears to have copied files from the XP Pro CD and put it onto their Media Center system. (By the way, this is installed on the E: drive - I don't know why)

Needless to say, it's asking for activation keys, etc.

So, they purchased their own copy of XP Pro in the store (no media center versions available) and I tried to install that in a repair fashion over what was there now. When it comes to the product key screen, the key on the package is not working.

Many calls to Microsoft later, they cut me a new key, but it too doesn't work.

So, I'm stuck with trying to figure out how to non-destructively downgrade XP Media Center to XP Pro so I can keep their software (for which they haven't kept the CD's/books/licenses) from going under, so formatting is out of the question.

So, two questions:

Is there a way to identify and remove the necessary parts of the installation or product key generating files (or encrypted in the registry) for me to be able to non-destructively install the XP Pro version?

I tried to make a UBCD disk, but in booting it up, it comes up with some DRDOS window, and is not getting into any Windows setup for me to be able to run any win32 apps. Why would that happen like that?

Justin

Hi jmasters

Have you heard of keyfinder by Magical Jelly Bean Software which can extract Win XP serial number from registry(also MS Office keys)

under Bart PE - UBCD4win keyfinderpe can extract Win XP serial number if you navigate to Windows folder

Note ubcd4win is based on Win XP + Bart PE builder + ubcd4win project collection of shareware + freeware utilities

ubcd is dos based

which one are you using ?

best of luck with your problem it is too complex for me to attempt any advice on it.

If the PC is no longer bootable then ubcd4win project is usefull for extracting any usefull or important data (possibly to USB CDRW, hard disk or memory etc)

regards

Mike Barnes

Does media centre come shipped like other preinstalls with the I386 folder etc... on the hard drive?

It may be possible to create a new media centre CD. See FAQ 27 you may be able to get a copy of the rescue media from the original manufacturer for a fee or they may be able to tell you how to restore from the image which is probably hidden on the hdd, although this would wipe any 3rd party software not originally installed.

It looks like your client is going to have learned a very expensive lesson about not throwing away software CD's etc...

experts exchange

Not sure if anything here will help.

Media Centre OEM CD's

Mike, thank you for this potentially great lifesaving tip! I'm trying now to build a UBCD4Win ISO, but it's failing on me. I guess I somehow had built UBCD only before. I started over, and got a BartPE built, but not the UBCD4Win.

I looked and saw that keyfinder is a part of the UBCD4Win iso, and so I'm very excited to hopefully get it built and see what I can pull off this disk.

Thank you very much!

jmasters

@jmasters

Try the Config Tool... this makes it nearly foolproof to build.

I took a look briefly at the config tool docs, and it seems to not work with the BTS drivers out there at this time. Or am I confusing one tool with another?

jmasters

You are correct about that.. it uses the 1.6 drivers for now...