Reinstalling XP dont have my disc or serial number (oh no!) number

[clarej]

Hi everyone, I am hoping someone can help me with this

I have a 2009 macbook pro which i have been running bootcamp on. It has really been playing up lately (i cant even start in windows with out it crashing, and it takes up to 20 mins to start up osx) so i have decided to restore it and install snow leopard. My problem is that I am running a licenced copy of xp on my partitioned side but i no longer have the original disks or the serial number as i have moved overseas, so when i clear off the hard drive i have no idea how to get xp back? I was wondering if anyone has had this same problem, and/or knows where i can find my serial number and xp system files? I suppose the next question is how do i reinstall them without a disc?

any help would be most appreciated!

 

[jenzjen]

Ha, sounds shady, but good luck. No clue how you get your SN back sans disc or packaging, and are you really asking how to re-install software without the software disc?

 

[minifridge1138]

Google around for a windows xp keyfinder.
It's a very small app that can pull the serial number out of your registry.

I've used it several times for just this kind of thing.

 

[drbf]

yes, you can use the key finder program, but xp must be running

 

[balamw]

If there's nothing wrong with your XP install (it sounds like you just want to reinstall OS X) just use Winclone to back up your XP partition.

The actual OS X re-install should not mess with your XP install, but if you do want to wipe it completely you can just restore the clone of your Windows partition after the fact to a partition the same size or larger.

B

 

[macdroid]

Here is my favorite key recovery tool, which can extract the keys from the registry, even if the XP system can't be booted:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html