PRODUCT?

I picked up an old HP laptop, removed the hard drive to reformat. But before doing that I would like to retrieve the product key. I believe the OS is Windows 8.1 I know there are programs on the market. But they want a lot of money, for a one time shot. Is it possible to find the key myself?
Thanks for your time......

https://www.partitionwizard.com/part...s-7-8-8-1.html


https://www.ionos.ca/digitalguide/se...8-product-key/

I recall using the free program Magical Jelly Bean many years ago and if I remember correctly it worked just fine but you should be able to get the info without using a program.

It seemed to me that one time, I was able to find the product key somewhere in the windows system files. But I think that was when I was using either win 2000 or win xp. Anything i try now, I keep getting the key from my own system rather than the hard drive that I setup running in a USB port..

If you can hook up that drive via SATA or IDE directly to your motherboard then the Jellybean program should be able to see it and scan it for the info you want. Not sure if it can see it through the USB connection but would be worth a try since it's free.

https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

If the laptop was bootable with that older drive then you could also put it back in and run Jellybean there.

Thanks fink, for all the efforts. However, it did not work out. The reason I had to remove the HD from the laptop was because the HD was password protected. AS for the free JellyBean. The only free part is that it will only give you the first 4 characters of a remote HD Key. It wants $29 for anything else.

I'm just going to go ahead & reformat & take it from there. Thanks again, for your time......

Worth noting is a non-licensed version of Win 10 is still 98% functional for the average user. Occasional onscreen messages to buy a license and a very few limitations on display/personalization options are just about the only downside to not buying it.

#3 here for more details..

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews...heap,5717.html

Thanks fink; I will make note of that.......