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    #1

    Windows product key quandry

    First Microsoft are a bunch of *******s. Anyway a recovery failed and completely screwed up my win 7 partition. I don't use it much but dammit I paid for it and I want it on my pc just in case. I have Samsung sending me a recovery disk and someone told me it won't need to be activated but I don't believe it or they said after I install I can pull it off the computer. I don't know but there is a partially legible product key on the back. I can read almost all of it except there are 6 number or letters I do not know for sure. Five of them can only be one other possible capitol letter or number. One could be any of all Capital letters or numbers. Can anyone guess how many possibilities that is? Any math whizzes out there? Do you think it's possible to figure it out? Are there any programs that could break that key really quick?
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    #2
    In python:
    Code:
    number_of_possibilities = 2 ** 5 * len(all_Capital_letters_or_numbers)


    So I guess at about 1152
    Last edited by james147; Dec 08, 2012, 04:58 PM.
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      #3
      Originally posted by james147 View Post
      In python:
      Code:
      number_of_possibilities = 2 ** 5 + len(all_Capital_letters_or_numbers)


      So I guess at about 68
      How did you get that? I got 1156 (typo) 1152 possibilities
      (2*2*2*2*2*36)

      EDIT: Ah, I see you fixed it already
      Last edited by kubicle; Dec 08, 2012, 05:02 PM.
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        #4
        it used to be that any key would work ..........so just get one off a friends win7 box and try it

        VINNY
        i7 4core HT 8MB L3 2.9GHz
        16GB RAM
        Nvidia GTX 860M 4GB RAM 1152 cuda cores
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          #5
          Originally posted by kubicle View Post
          How did you get that? I got 1156 (typo) 1152 possibilities
          (2*2*2*2*2*36)

          EDIT: Ah, I see you fixed it already
          Is that right 0-9 numbers 26 letters? Damn it could be a long day trying that out. Oh sorry I see now.
          Last edited by pauly; Dec 08, 2012, 06:46 PM.
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            #6
            I'm supposed to receive my recovery disc Friday. I will give it a go and let you know how many attempts. I'm gonna go with my gut on some of these. There are possibilities but looking at it I have a feel for the better options.
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              #7
              hear try this one ..... [deleted by admin]

              VINNY
              Last edited by SteveRiley; Dec 08, 2012, 10:00 PM.
              i7 4core HT 8MB L3 2.9GHz
              16GB RAM
              Nvidia GTX 860M 4GB RAM 1152 cuda cores
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                #8
                Hm, I suspect you're thinking of the wrong formula. Each symbol can be A..Z,0..9. That's 36 possible symbols per position. If you're evaluating the total possible combinations permutations of a five-character string, then the number is

                36 ^ 5 = 60,466,176
                Last edited by SteveRiley; Dec 08, 2012, 09:59 PM. Reason: Pedantic precision.
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                  #9
                  Permutations, since the order counts.
                  That is,
                  3AZ2A
                  is different from
                  A3Z2A

                  (I.e., 3AZ2A and A3Z2A count as just ONE combination, but as two permutations.)

                  So, yes, 36^5 permutations (rather than combinations).

                  I know you know. Just being precise here :-)
                  Last edited by Qqmike; Dec 08, 2012, 09:15 PM. Reason: 5 symbols, not 6
                  An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                    #10
                    Originally posted by vinnywright View Post
                    hear try this one ..... [deleted by admin]

                    VINNY
                    Is this win 7 home premium? Where did you get it lol? I saved it on a usb. I will try it when my recovery disk shows up. You can remove it till then. I don't think two pc's can use the same key.
                    Last edited by SteveRiley; Dec 08, 2012, 10:00 PM.
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                      #11
                      Originally posted by SteveRiley View Post
                      Hm, I suspect you're thinking of the wrong formula. Each symbol can be A..Z,0..9. That's 36 possible symbols per position. If you're evaluating the total possible combinations of a five-character string, then the number is

                      36 ^ 5 = 60,466,176
                      I see but I have most of it. I am missing 6 total characters. Out of that six one could be any character A-Z caps and 0-9. Its totally in-legible. Of the other 5 I have narrowed each character to two possible characters based on looking with a magnifying glass. I am confident those 5 characters are one of two. Like for instance a Y or a V or an O or a D. I think the first two posters really understood what I was saying.
                      Last edited by pauly; Dec 08, 2012, 09:57 PM.
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                        #12
                        Guys, please don't post product keys here.
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                          #13
                          Originally posted by pauly View Post
                          I see but I have most of it. I am missing 6 total characters. Out of that six one could be any character A-Z caps and 0-9. Its totally in-legible. Of the other 5 I have narrowed each character to two possible characters based on looking with a magnifying glass. I am confident those 5 characters are one of two. Like for instance a Y or a V or an O or a D. I think the first two posters really understood what I was saying.
                          Right. Missed that on first reading, apologies.

                          It's true that recovery discs from OEMs don't usually need keys, as these are pre-activated. However, you might have some success contacting Samsung and/or Microsoft, explaining that your sticker is worn, and you need another key. They might ask for photos of the computer and the sticker. This was permitted when I still worked there; I don't know whether the policy has changed.
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                            #14
                            Originally posted by SteveRiley View Post
                            It's true that recovery discs from OEMs don't usually need keys, as these are pre-activated.
                            That's right on every Laptop I've ever encountered with Windows 7 which I have had to reinstall or anything similar.

                            In the hope that I'm not going off too much on a tangent or giving wrong information I'm just going to throw a couple solutions/ideas out there. I've done all three of the following solutions using a Dell XPS 17 laptop and an OEM Windows disc that Dell provided.

                            ### SOLUTION 1 ###

                            I know this sounds like a hassle but its a trick I've used before. Make a copy of your HDD say with dd to another hard drive. Then you use an OEM disc (some manufacturers provide it with the laptop, others make the download available on their site) then reinstall Windows from that disc but don't think about trying to save what's on that hard drive else you might hit issues.

                            Once your installed just boot into Windows, don't try any tricks with keeping Grub etc. Just do an install that you would expect from the manufacturer Then once in you'll see that your Windows install will somehow recognize its on the same machine. It does this by getting some information from the BIOS or possibly the motherboard (i'm honestly not sure but I think it the BIOS). From there you should go to the Computer information screen and you'll see it will have the key already there (Copy the key down if you ever need it). You might need to just activate online (I can't recall if I needed to but think not.) After that you can just re-size the partitions and start restoring your old Linux install.

                            ### SOLUTION 2 ####

                            If you are keeping Windows around for anything then other than games, then you can just use your OEM disc to install into VirtualBox. The reason I advocate this is because you can keep this image with you no matter what computer you move to and still have a Windows install lying around. This might require you to have the key on hand but you could get it from the install from solution 1. My OEM disc automatically registered the key and verified my Windows with my VBox install so I have a feeling you could just go for this first (no harm in trying and it is the easiest and least hassle of my three proposed solutions). The Windows OEM install has no issues with running in VBox and it isn't a violation of the terms of use. IIRC you can have up to 3 VMs of a Windows 7 install but I don't think they have a way of checking it.

                            ### SOLUTION 3 ###

                            Repeat solution 1 but then don't reinstall any drivers. Instead you can convert the install into a VM in numerous ways. You can either use a tool that takes an existing install and converts it to an image that you can use with VBox. Microsoft even provides a tool to do this - it makes a VHD but VBox handles those just fine - but for the life of me I can't remember what its called and there might be others.

                            The hardcore hacker solution involves using KVM and QEMU but I've never done that and have no experience with it.

                            ### ###

                            Hopefully one of these might be a possibilty for you. I would strongly advocate just trying your luck with solution #2 as its so easy and quick. It might even help you get that key if your experience is anything like mine was. I've done all three of my solutions proposed so I know they work - well at least worked every time I tried them.

                            Ok long, partly off topic, but hopefully helpful post done!
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                              #15
                              @Steve
                              Oh wow thats great. Thanks that solves the whole issue.

                              @dmeyer
                              Will use optopn two thanks.
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