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Old Dell COA Sticker ripped, and I can't find my COA
I am trying to install Windows 2000 on an old computer for fun, but as I was entering my COA I discovered that the last 3 letters are missing. I had already deleted the previous partition on my drive and my other drive on that computer is not responding to me (It prompts that windows had a shutdown error lets me choose from a prompt then either lists some files then freezes or goes totally black) so I cannot find it through a registry editor or through a third party device. Any help or information is well apreciated.
Philip_Yip
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February 20th, 2014 22:00
Its unlikely Dell or Microsoft will help support an OS that has reached End of Life.
If you need to use Windows 2000 its best to use a VM such as VMWare Player opposed to continuing to use such old hardware but you still need a valid 25 digit product key.
theflash1932
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February 25th, 2014 08:00
Activation was different for 2000 ... without the COA, there won't be a way to reinstall it ... you would need to find software capable of retrieving the key SPECIFICALLY for 2000. Also, if the 2000 installation was the original, shipped from Dell, or installed using a Dell installation CD, those utilities most likely will not return your actual license key (but I'm not positive with 2000 - XP would NOT return a valid key if installed at the manufacturer or with a manufacturer's installation disc).
Since this is for "fun", try Ubuntu (not that Ubuntu is necessarily "fun", but it will give you a free operating system to use this old hardware with). If you want Windows, XP can be had for cheap, but it will be end of life in a few weeks. Chances are, it won't run anything more modern that XP though.