ubuntu no longer works, how do I get windows back without activation key?

[digiman2372]

Hello everyone, I installed ubuntu on my laptop ,and in the process, it asked me if I wanted to keep the windows 7 operating system or delete it and all the data I had on there. Unfortunately, I had to delete it because it oddly didn’t give me the option to keep windows 7 even though that’s what it was asking. Long story short, I messed up the booting code for ubuntu and now it won’t boot up. I just want windows 7 back. I know I can redownload the windows 7 OS onto a flash drive and boot it, but won’t it ask me for the activation key? What do I do then? Also, is it possible to get all my data back after I do?

[strollin]

There should be a sticker on the bottom of the laptop with the key (provided the laptop originally came with Win 7).

Doubtful you can get your data back.  Your best bet is to backup your data before doing anything else.  Provided you have another computer, you could attach the laptop drive via a USB adapter and copy the data to the other computer.

[digiman2372]

sorry for the late response, but the laptop is old and the sticker has faded away. is there anywhere else I can find the product key?    and thank you for the backup suggestion.

[Lisa_maree]

Hi
You don't say what laptop it is, most Windows 7 laptops had a recovery partition which may still be on the drive to do a factory restore. If it is still there you can access it from a key sequence at boot up and then you won't need to use a key. Also some manufactures use a generic key  for windows if we know the model we may be able to give you that number. Also Toshiba, Dell and Lenovo can either supply recovery media or a download to create the recovery media.

Note to self before loading another operating system.

Make a backup of my present OS.
Read the windows activation key or Windows key. Write it on a label under the battery or in the hard drive cover( very important with windows XP even if you have the key Microsoft won't activate it)
Or another idea is to get another drive for the computer to load Linux on used drives are available for a few dollars or even free.

[digiman2372]

Hey lisa, thank you for responding. my laptop is a HP pavillion dv6. I would like to see if I can do the factory reset option from booting up. How do I do this exactly?

[Lisa_maree]

You could try this copied from another site.

To restore the computer from the recovery partition, follow these steps:
1. Access Recovery Manager in either of the following ways:
● Select Start > All Programs > Recovery Manager > Recovery Manager.
– or –
● Turn on or restart the computer, and then press ESC while the “Press the ESC key for Startup Menu” message is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Then, press F11 while the “F11 (System Recovery)” message is displayed on the screen.
2. Click System Recovery in the Recovery Manager window.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

[digiman2372]

unfortunately  it says "error" no such partition.  and it goes to grub rescue waiting for me to input a command. ill have to do more research. Thank you for your input lisa!

[Lisa_maree]

So the recovery partition is lost /been deleted. Do you know anyone with the same model dv6 which is still running windows. If you do you can make the recovery pen drive on that laptop and use it on yours. If you were nice you would give the other owner the pen drive after you have used it. And make a new one for yourself.

Or you could check here https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph0714
It would pay to erase at least the first 300 mb of the hard drive or if you can find a replacement blank hard drive to put in, either would make running the recovery easy.

[Mart44]

Is this your only computer?  If you have another one, removing the drive from the laptop via the cover underneath, putting it into a USB caddy (SATA) and plugging it into the other computer would mean that you could at least see what is on the disk and if your files are there to be rescued. There is the small cost of the caddy (under £10 from Amazon) but this might also let you see if W.7 is there to recover. If it is, I read there is software that might be able to rescue the activation key from the Registry.

If you don't have any success with getting W.7 back, Ubuntu or Linux Mint are good operating systems. The Linux OS could just be reinstalled. I have given my laptop computer over entirely to Linux Mint.

[DaveLembke]

If you have *4GB RAM or greater and 160GB HDD or larger, an option may be to install Windows 10 64-bit Home Edition to it and when it asks for the activation key you select that you dont have a key. It will install and run like normal with just some customization features crippled. You then could run it that way or pay for the key to enable the disabled customization features. Initially Windows 10 will run normal, but after a period of time a watermark and reminder would be in the lower right corner telling you that it hasn't been activated yet. A friend of mine has been using his since 2018 without activating it and I am surprised that it doesn't run out like how it use to be 30-day access to system and then the OS wont work without activation.

8GB RAM or more is best with Windows 10 and a SSD drive vs HDD for best performance, however I have run Windows 10 32-bit in testing on 2GB RAM and while it works its slow on 2GB RAM and lots of HDD paging going on to compensate for lack of RAM.

Note that this suggestion is not a suggestion to use Windows 10 without activating it! Microsoft if they didn't want people to use it long term without proper activation, should have set a limit to its use and they haven't yet as far as I have been told. Its best to eventually pay them for an activation even though they created it in a way that it functions without a key and activation.

[digiman2372]

awesome, thank you so much for the suggestions everyone! true, at the very least I can just install the linux OS again. i'll be okay no matter what. ill mark this thread as solved.