athenian200 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 (Note that this topic is doesn't belong in the XP forum, because my computer can no longer run XP)Well, after running Windows XP flawlessly for about 4 years, my main computer lost power in the middle of a virus scan. Somehow, my partition table was corrupted, and no amount of trickery in FDISK would fix it. Since I had backed up all my personal documents already, I decided to reinstall. But I found that I couldn't, because apparently after I had Fry's build my system, they never gave me the Certificate of Authenticity. So I can't reinstall XP unless I purchase another copy.This essentially leaves me with 2 options (Unless I buy another copy of XP): 1. Install Windows 98SEPros: Most things will work as before, and I can install it for free.Cons: Cannot run Office 2003 or other newer applications, possibly even Firefox soon. 2. Install LinuxPros: Free, and may be able to open Office 2003 files with OpenOffice.Cons: Difficult to maintain, may be incompatible with most hardware, and cannot actually run Office 2003.My main concern is being able to read my Word, Excel, and Outlook 2003 files with as little loss of formatting as possible. Which of these would be the best option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wetlegs6 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Install XP and crack it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 (edited) Somehow, my partition table was corrupted, and no amount of trickery in FDISK would fix it.If you haven't already completely destroyed data on the drive, TESTDISK:http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDiskmay still be able to re-build partition table.If you are able to get an access to ntuser.dat, you can try recovering the actual original KEY:http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/window...t-key-recovery/About:My main concern is being able to read my Word, Excel, and Outlook 2003 files with as little loss of formatting as possible. Which of these would be the best option?http://www.openoffice.org/Openoffice.org is now really 99.99% compatible, BOTH on Windows and Linux platform, that would take account for Word and Excel files.I cannot say for Outlook....Install XP and crack it?You joking, right?:RULES:http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=184081. This is not a warez site! Links/Requests to warez and/or illegal material (porn, cracks, serials, etc..) will not be tolerated. Discussion of circumventing WGA/activation/timebombs/keygens or any other illegal activity will also not be tolerated. You will be banned without notice.jaclaz Edited February 17, 2007 by jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noguru Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Call Microsoft support and explain the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 So what you are saying is that you just need the key? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripken204 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Call Microsoft support and explain the situation.good joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarun Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 It's no joke, Microsoft is extremely helpful and will go above and beyond for customer satisfaction.athenian200,First boot your XP media and do a chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console. You should also attempt a fixmbr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athenian200 Posted February 17, 2007 Author Share Posted February 17, 2007 I did call Microsoft support, and they did try to help me, and they were apologetic, but said that if I didn't have the key, I had no proof of ownership. They did suggest that I upgrade to Vista rather than buy a new copy of XP, however.I've decided to go back to Windows 98. I tried Thunderbird on my old computer, and it already does on my old computer what Outlook was doing on my new one. Also, the only programs I have that don't run on Windows 98 are Office 2003, and Norton Antivirus 2006. If I downgrade back to 2005, and buy a new license, that should work. Reading my Word files shouldn't be too hard, because I already tried accessing them with Wordpad on my old computer, and all the formatting was still there. My biggest concern, though, is getting a decent spell check application. The one in Word was the best one I had ever used, and AbiWord didn't even recognize the word "aesthetic". I don't think OpenOffice supports Windows 98 anymore, unfortunately.I'm never going to buy anything that requires me to keep up with a product key again. I wasted $600. I guess they've decided that if you can't be responsible to keep up with your keys, you deserve to pay double. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripken204 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 see i told you it was a joke. there is no way that MS will give you a free key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noguru Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 I don't think OpenOffice supports Windows 98 anymore, unfortunately.Yes it does, works very good. When it comes to .doc compatiblity Openoffice is the best. I use openoffice at home and Office2003 at work. I swap doc's constantly without problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noguru Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 see i told you it was a joke. there is no way that MS will give you a free key.Nobody said anything about giving away free key's. Offcourse they don't do that. You stop joking now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripken204 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 see i told you it was a joke. there is no way that MS will give you a free key.Nobody said anything about giving away free key's. Offcourse they don't do that. You stop joking now...? im not trying to argue this.. its just that you were asking MS for a new key when you didnt have your own key. now yes you did buy xp but you cant prove it, and thats all that MS cares about. so to MS you are trying to get a free key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athenian200 Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 Windows 98 is installed. OpenOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird all work quite well. I really only purchased Office and XP because the man at Fry's convinced me that they were better. All I need to do now is to find a way to convert my old PST files into a format readable by Thunderbird. Unfortunately, the most common one, Outport, expects Outlook to be installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 If the salesperson at Fry's did not give you a COA when XP or Office 2003 were installed, Fry's could be in legal hot water (being a US company) - especially if this is "common practice" to other customers of that store. If you marched down to Fry's with the machine and explained the issue, you could probably get yourself another copy, or at least your COA. You might also want to call Microsoft, as any XP or Office purchase MUST come with the COA, and unless they're a really large royalty OEM (which they're not), hologram CD media. If you don't have one (or both), you don't have a legal copy. If you purchased this from a vendor (online or off), they broke the law in the US and owe you whatever it was they didn't give you (the COA, hologram media, or both!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfunction Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Can you boot from CD? If so, get O&O RescueBox (or some other recovery thing) and recover your registry. Then, get the activation info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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