Win 7 and MBR issues

[regressing]

Hello all.
My laptop HD has Win 7 on it and it has failed to boot. I've tried the usual recovery options from the WIn 7 DVD and managed to get to a CMD prompt and did a /FixMBR.
However, now the MBR must point to the C:\Windows.old folder on the drive and when Windows does eventally boot it says it is a non-genuine Windows copy and eventually just hangs up.

I know I have a C:\Windows folder and I'm trying to get the MBR to point to it but I cannot seem to do that.

How can I get the MBR to point to that 'good' windows folder and not the windows.old folder?

Lastly, if I cannot resurrect the OS, is there a way I can interrogate the hard drive's Windows registry in order to grab the orginal Windows S/N in case I need to rebuild/reinstall the OS?

Thanks for any assistance.
regressing

 

[Emerald]

don't you have a sticker on the bottom side of your laptop with the product key for windows?

 

[regressing]

There once was but it's so faded and scuffed that it is unreadable.
All I need is a way to somehow point the loader to C:\Windows and not to C:\Windows.old where it points to now.

Or is there a program that can find the Windows 7 serial/product key that's hopefully still buried in the drive's Windows directory?
I can mount the hd in my desktop and interrogate all the folders.

Anybody????