Found the wrong Windows Key

So long story short I've used about 5 different key finders to get my key from and old HDD that had bad sectors or something and every one of them finds the same key. I put it in Windows Activation and it says it's a "default key" and cannot be used. The sticker on the bottom of my laptop is worn off basically and I've contacted both Sony (it's a Vaio) and Microsoft and they don't care at all.

Any help?

 

Order recovery media from Sony. It has the key built in.

 

If you cant read the COA sticker on the case you will have to take Adrynalyne's advice and order recovery media. Just to explain, on an OEM machine keyfinders will always find the licence key bought by the OEM from Microsoft for the production of a batch of machines, and all machines in the same batch will carry the same key. The key cannot be used for activation, for that you need the unique COA key on the machine, ans as they can wear off it's wise to record it elsewhere.

The system has now been changed, with the key being embedded in the BIOS.

 

Well the only problem is that they want a ridiculous amount of money. Yeah I get that it's a "batch" key for mass use but is there no other way to extract it, like from bios? I noticed the computer acting stupid as soon as I swapped HDD. Figured it was some proprietary nonsense build in...

 

Define rdiculous.

Most oems charge ~ 20usd for recovery media.

 

If the old hard disk is still readable at all it might be worth creating an image of it with a boot disk, restoring that image to the new disk, and then initiating the recovery process from its recovery partition. If successful that would put the system back to its original state.

Can't think of any other way.