How do I tell the MS licence type from the key ?

Hodders · 20 Dec 2006 at 19:22

A friend of my dads has a SBS server. It badly needs a reinstall (don't ask :-)

.

The problem is the supplier of his system has gone bust and he doesn't have the install media.

He does have an invoice showing that he has paid for the SBS 2k3 R2 licence and he has the licence key itself (got using JellyBean).

But before he can reinstall he needs some install media.

But if he installs using the wrong media (OEM vs retail vs corporate (ie Dell)) the process will fail.

So can you tell what licence 'type' a MS OS licence code belongs to - is there a tool of checker that will tell ?

Cheers.

marc2003 · 20 Dec 2006 at 21:17

you need the disk as far as i can tell. if you did, this article would help....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889713

without it i have no idea...

riddlermarc · 20 Dec 2006 at 21:39

I would give MS a call, I'm sure they could help you out seeing as it is a legit copy your Dad originally had?

ruffneck · 21 Dec 2006 at 15:51

Have you got the COA?

or just got the code from Jellybean keyfinder?

Burnsy2023 · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:07

ruffneck said:
Have you got the COA?

or just got the code from Jellybean keyfinder?

Thats good point, if it's OEM it'll have a COA saying so, if not do you have a Volume Licence Agreement?

Burnsy

bledd · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:15

does it still load windows ok?

check..

c:\windows\system32\eula.txt

(or, start, run, eula.txt)

scroll to the bottom of the file, that'll tell you the os version.., just google the code it brings up

ie, this one is..

XPSP2_RM.0_HOM_OEM_EN

-on my mum's xpsp2 oem machine

Curiosityx · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:23

If it is a server then the OS would not likely come pre-intstalled so you can pretty much rule out OEM.

It would be a retail copy your after as it should have been purchased seperatly even if it was built by a third party.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:32

Curiosityx said:
If it is a server then the OS would not likely come pre-intstalled so you can pretty much rule out OEM.

It would be a retail copy your after as it should have been purchased seperatly even if it was built by a third party.

Just because it's not preinstlled doesn't mean that it's not OEM. Two of my Dell servers didn't have anything preinstalled. I had the OEM media, COA and open manage CDs though. The only way you can dicount OEM is the absence of a COA.

Burnsy

Curiosityx · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:36

burnsy2023 said:
Just because it's not preinstlled doesn't mean that it's not OEM. Two of my Dell servers didn't have anything preinstalled. I had the OEM media, COA and open manage CDs though. The only way you can dicount OEM is the absence of a COA.

Burnsy

From personal experience i stand by my comments, this is using HP supplied servers.

Hodders · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:39

He has no OS documents except the invoice - no COA, no media etc.

I'll get him to check the eula.txt file....

How would FAST react to "I haven't got the COA, but here is the invoice showing that I paid for it." ?

It may end up being easier to simply buy a new copy - but this seems unfair given that he actually paid for the old one !

Thanks for your help everyone.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:39

Curiosityx said:
From personal experience i stand by my comments, this is using HP supplied servers.

Smaller OEM especially won't preinstall.

Burnsy

bledd · 21 Dec 2006 at 16:52

what ever version is written in the eula file, you'll need to obtain

zetec452 · 21 Dec 2006 at 17:29

Hodders said:
He has no OS documents except the invoice - no COA, no media etc.

I'll get him to check the eula.txt file....

How would FAST react to "I haven't got the COA, but here is the invoice showing that I paid for it." ?

It may end up being easier to simply buy a new copy - but this seems unfair given that he actually paid for the old one !

Thanks for your help everyone.

Well if the old company have gone bust there may not be much you can do about it. Although he's paid for SBS it seems as though he may not have actually reiceved SBS (if that makes sense).

Quickest way would be to re purchase. I can't see MS sending media through but it could be worth a try.

Jon

Burnsy2023 · 21 Dec 2006 at 18:52

Hodders said:
snip

I would suggest rebuying, as it stands he has absolutley no proof of licence.

Burnsy

crashuk · 21 Dec 2006 at 19:22

if you have the serial then there are a few tricks you can use but i dont want to get banned. your best friend is google.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Dec 2006 at 19:37

I just had a thought, if it was prinstalled, in all likelyhood the key used to preinstall the system will probably be a VLK from an image and therefore won't be able to be used again.

Burnsy