"Windows.old.old" (Help requested)

Backstory: I broke my windows 7 installation awhile ago and went to linux, without deleting the broken installation. Later when I discovered windows 10 I decided to go and use it but it broke, so I again installed windows 10.

This is 3 windows installations on one partition, and I was wondering if its possible to see the backup files from my windows 7 installation. I need this so that I can get the windows product key from windows 7 because the sticker on my laptop is unreadable.

The laptop itself is the only remaining component from the purchase, from TOSHIBA. There is a HDDRECOVERY partition, but I tried to boot it and got a winload.exe error.

I want the key so that when windows 10 gets a full release I'll be able to downgrade to windows 7 > and then use the upgrade back to windows 10.

Thanks in advanced, and sorry if my question isn't clear.

EDIT 1: I should have mentioned that the linux wasn't installed to the same partition as the broken windows, I just never used the broken windows until I installed my first copy of windows 10.

If this is an OEM system, most likely there is no key there... the key is embedded in your BIOS.

Mystere said:

If this is an OEM system, most likely there is no key there... the key is embedded in your BIOS.

Windows 8, 8.1 has the key tied to the board, did they put Windows 7 key in bios?? Just asking that would be a new one to me.

sniper said:

Backstory: I broke my windows 7 installation awhile ago and went to linux, without deleting the broken installation. Later when I discovered windows 10 I decided to go and use it but it broke, so I again installed windows 10.

This is 3 windows installations on one partition, and I was wondering if its possible to see the backup files from my windows 7 installation. I need this so that I can get the windows product key from windows 7 because the sticker on my laptop is unreadable.

The laptop itself is the only remaining component from the purchase, from TOSHIBA. There is a HDDRECOVERY partition, but I tried to boot it and got a winload.exe error.

I want the key so that when windows 10 gets a full release I'll be able to downgrade to windows 7 > and then use the upgrade back to windows 10.

Thanks in advanced, and sorry if my question isn't clear.

EDIT 1: I should have mentioned that the linux wasn't installed to the same partition as the broken windows, I just never used the broken windows until I installed my first copy of windows 10.

I have used Nirsoft's "Produkey" to recover product keys from mighty scambled messes.
It's worth a shot--it's free
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...91071109,d.cGU

eagle said:

Windows 8, 8.1 has the key tied to the board, did they put Windows 7 key in bios?? Just asking that would be a new one to me.

Did you test Produkey?
I just installed WSCC on Win10-- 10049.
WSCC is a frontend for Nirsoft Utilities, Sysinternals Utilities, and Windows Utilities and contains Produkey as one of 264 utilities in that bundle.
I ran Produkey in Win10-10049 and it works as well as it did in all previous systems.
One of the first packages I install on a new system.
Find it here.............. http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/index.php

I did look in the windows.old registry hive (all of them) and also scanned them with a key finder, but those are from my previous windows 10 installation. Like I said, I have installed windows 10 twice (with the original being win 7) and I am wondering where to find "Windows.old.old" (two installations ago) I have tried multiple product key finders. Also, I'm not sure if the system is OEM or how to check but I know that the sticker does in fact contain the product key for windows 7, its just faded.

EDIT: I found that some people are able to scan the sticker (with a printer?) & manage to get the key out, but no luck for me.

Also, I cannot use the 0 key to open up the HDDRECOVERY, but I can still see it & view the files in it. I have used bcdedit to try to get it a bootable partition (I used openbcd as a template for it & edited it). I've tried to change the path to many different things but I can't get one to work. I've tried many different paths (i.e. \BOOT\BCD) Usually Always it gives me an error (0xc000007b) to an item in which I did ont make the path, but after looking in bcdedit the path was changed to it. (Example: changed the path to "\BIN\something.EXE" and after restart it says the path is "\BIN\BOOT_32.EXE") FYI my computer and its windows installation is x64 if it makes a difference.