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I recently performed a fresh install of Windows 7 on my computer, but only as I deleted the old partition (that contained my old Windows 7 install) did I remember I hadn't extracted my Windows activation code to re-activate the new copy with (and seeing as I've lost the original packaging, am a little stuck now).
Hopefully, someone has a simple way to restore the old partition, and access the old install's registry, so I might re-obtain the key and re-activate.
EDIT: I forgot to add earlier (see comments) - the disk that I wrote the fresh install to was NOT the same disk that I previously been running Windows on. I simply deleted the partition on the old drive and stopped messing with it after that.
Have you already re-installed windows, or did you stop as soon as you had deleted the partition from the drive? – Mike Insch – 2011-07-21T12:25:16.907
as many as u use space on your hard drive u lose the old one data... @active partition recovery to search on hard drive deleted partition and then browse needed files.. – Anotomix – 2011-07-21T12:31:09.263
@Mike - Sorry, should have mentioned that I actually installed the new copy of windows on a seperate drive (a new SSD), and deleted the old partitions off the other hard drive (haven't reformatted/overwritten anything on the old drives yet, they remain blank). – Salami – 2011-07-21T13:19:44.797
Also, @Linker3000 - I don't want to recover files in the traditional sense, I want to recover the registry, which (I'm not sure) may potentially be stored in a strange/different way. – Salami – 2011-07-21T13:22:00.477
I originally thought this was totally different, but you may want to read questions here regarding partition recovery. – KCotreau – 2011-07-21T13:37:36.807
You should include this information (that all you have done is delete the old partition) as it will potentially affect the usefulness of the answers you get. – ChrisF – 2011-07-21T13:40:49.133
Hi @SalamiArm - The registry just comprises a set of fairly ordinary files. Hope you get a solution. – Linker3000 – 2011-07-21T13:44:19.617
You could try running TestDisk from a live-cd... http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Livecd
– Joe Internet – 2011-07-21T13:53:14.713