Old CD With No Key -- Need One BAD!

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Here's my situation ... We just upgraded out accounting system to Quickbooks
from Great Plains like ancientstillrunsonDOS ... QB likes at least 98 and GP
won'r look at anything above 98.

We have GP running off of a Novell 5.1 server that we are about to retire,
but we still need to access the information for history/reports/etc. I have
an old workstation that I'm trying to move all the data to.

Win 98 is totally messed up. It's a compaq and it's refusing the restore
disk, I sispect the wrong one got stored with the PC.

I dug through the graveyard and found a copy of Windows 95 and a copy of 98
upgrade. All of the rest of the machines in the office are runing 2000 or
above, so we're obviously not using the licenses, so jackpot. Except that
the95 CD does not have the key (the 98 does, yay! but I need to get 95 on
there to upgrade.) My other option is the other thing I found in the
graveyard a copy of DOS 6.2!

Is there any way that MS can extract keys from CDs, I know we purchased this
forever ago, I wouldn't even know where to look for an invoice or anything
.... but this is a really weird stiuation, where we need the older OS to run
the application that we need to keep this going.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!
~Kathryn

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

"Kathryn" <Kathryn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1D37C58F-87E4-49FD-BE86-5C64D4929C94@microsoft.com...
>
> I dug through the graveyard and found a copy of Windows 95 and a copy of
98
> upgrade. All of the rest of the machines in the office are runing 2000 or
> above, so we're obviously not using the licenses, so jackpot. Except that
> the95 CD does not have the key (the 98 does, yay! but I need to get 95 on
> there to upgrade.)

No, you don't. The 98 setup procedure
will ask for a qualifying product
when it doesn't find same on the hard drive.

At that time, insert the 95 CD
and point the 98 installer to that drive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion (More info?)

Why not try to just install the Win98 upgrade CD and forget the Win95?
(If your Win98 CD is a Win98 SE version)
What you have may be the second in this list:

Here's some info about the various types of W98SE CDs: (from Ron
Badour)

RETAIL FULL INSTALL: This CD will either upgrade W95/98 to SE or you
can install it to a blank hard drive.

RETAIL UPGRADE INSTALL: This CD will either upgrade W95/98 to SE or
you can install it to a blank hard drive; however, when installing to
a blank drive, install will ask to see the qualifying system (i.e.,
W95) disk(s).

OEM FULL INSTALL. This SE CD is designed to be installed to a blank
hard drive; however, there is a good possibility that you can trick it
into upgrading. For info, go to:
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/upgrade.html Be aware that if you
buy an OEM disk, it might be customized for installation on a
particular computer; however, this will probably be primarily with a
used disk.

UPDATE CD: This CD will only update a functioning copy of W98 to
W98SE. When MS sold them, they were $20 and came with a ProductKey.
Some venders were selling them and advising customers to use the W98
ProductKey which may or may not work--don't get stung. This outfit is
selling them for $35:
http://www.micronetxp.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AB&Product_Code=WIN98SE&Product_Count=&Category_Code=

RECOVERY CD: Some companies will brand an OEM CD and call it a
recovery CD. You should avoid these unless it is the exact recovery CD
you are looking for. Many recovery CDs will only install on the
equipment they were intended for.

....Alan

--
Alan Edwards, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/index.html

In microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion, "Kathryn"
<Kathryn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Here's my situation ... We just upgraded out accounting system to Quickbooks
>from Great Plains like ancientstillrunsonDOS ... QB likes at least 98 and GP
>won'r look at anything above 98.
>
>We have GP running off of a Novell 5.1 server that we are about to retire,
>but we still need to access the information for history/reports/etc. I have
>an old workstation that I'm trying to move all the data to.
>
>Win 98 is totally messed up. It's a compaq and it's refusing the restore
>disk, I sispect the wrong one got stored with the PC.
>
>I dug through the graveyard and found a copy of Windows 95 and a copy of 98
>upgrade. All of the rest of the machines in the office are runing 2000 or
>above, so we're obviously not using the licenses, so jackpot. Except that
>the95 CD does not have the key (the 98 does, yay! but I need to get 95 on
>there to upgrade.) My other option is the other thing I found in the
>graveyard a copy of DOS 6.2!
>
>Is there any way that MS can extract keys from CDs, I know we purchased this
>forever ago, I wouldn't even know where to look for an invoice or anything
>... but this is a really weird stiuation, where we need the older OS to run
>the application that we need to keep this going.
>
>Any thoughts on this?
>
>Thanks!
>~Kathryn