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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.

‎04-17-2017 07:00 PM - edited ‎04-17-2017 07:01 PM

HP Recommended
Product: Presario CQ56-219WM
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

I purchased this laptop new (out of the box) in 2011. I had to reinstall Windows 7 OEM, however, the product key has been rubbed off of the bottom of the device (quite frankly a poor excuse of an attempt by HP to safeguard product keys...) and the device came with no rescue media. It did come with a recovery partition, but no matter the effort, I am unable to boot it to the recovery partition, as I have read that would, in fact, restore the factory product key.

 

I simply need a way to retrieve the key. I am NOT going to purchase another as I have already purchased this one, and it is faulty product design that led to its destruction. 

 

Since the device is long since out of warranty (ended in 2012), there was no option for online support, and HP's "tool" directed me here. 

 

Things that are not viable options:

 

  • 3rd party tools to retrieve key from registry (since OS was reinstalled via OEM ISO, there is no key to retrieve)
  • Purchase Windows 7 again (over 150 dollars through Amazon and Microsoft). I purchased the OS once, and am not going to purchase a second time due to HP design flaws.
  • Recovery keys (no recovery keys were created from factory image)

I have attempted to set the recovery partition as active, but it continuously says "cannot find operating system" if I directly boot to it (force the boot.) Otherwise, it just boots back into Windows. It seems that the recovery partition is corrupted.

 

1 REPLY 1

‎04-17-2017 10:16 PM

HP Recommended
Hi,


First, this is not HP technical support

HP maintains no official presence here

All the members helping others here are end users like you

If you need to direct complaints to HP regarding design flaws, I'll suggest you contact HP directly

https://ssl.www8.hp.com/in/en/contact-hp/connect-with-hp.html

Now coming to your​ issue, my only suggestion to you is to order recovery discs from here:
http://computersurgeons.com/p-20151-windows-7-64b-recovery-kit-640123-001-for-compaq-presario-notebo...

You can boot from these discs and factory reset HDD

I'm not aware of any other solution in your case


Regards

Visruth
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