Establishing previous O/S

[whitebear]

Hey

Can anyone help me in discovering which previous OS was used on a machine.

I believe the registry will have the answer, but locating it is proving difficult.

Many thanks!!

Whitebear

[patio]

Not if it's been formatted or had a clean install of the exxisting OS...No it can't be done.

Why do you ask ? ?

[BC_Programmer]

Even for an upgrade install it would take a lot of work and file/folder analysis.

The registry is of no assistance.

[dahlarbear]

ProduKey.  You may be able to use Nirsoft's ProduKey if you can run it on a Windows computer that has access to the hard drive in question.

Along with displaying the "Product ID" and "Product Key", it will also display the Windows operating system version and service pack level, if any.

Read the documentation on the web site.  Download, unzip, and execute "ProduKey.exe".

From the program's main window, select "File" -> "Select Source".  This should give you access to hard drives and/or Windows registry other than the one you're currently running from.  I think it might work for you...

This assumes the hard drive in question contains a readable Windows file system.

[BC_Programmer]

dahlarbear- they want information on the "previous" OS, not the current one that is installed. 

[dahlarbear]

1.  I know.  There's a chance they can pull the information off the disk in question from a working computer system, assuming the previous file system is still intact.   

I've only played with it a little bit, but there's a "Select Source" option within ProduKey program window.

2.  Do you think they've overwritten the previous operating system with a new one?   

[BC_Programmer]

2.  Do you think they've overwritten the previous operating system with a new one?   

Well, that's what I thought. After all, it's a tad difficult to access the registry without an OS installed.

[dahlarbear]

There you go again with "logic".  Which brain hemisphere is that again - I forget...   

[patio]

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