Micro(bad word) Office missing key

I recently got an incredible deal on a slightly used ASUS G74sx from a buddy of mine who was deploying. After seeing some of the less-than-PG files on his hard drive, I deemed it prudent to reset the computer to factory defaults, figuring it would be best to start over as "Brand new" as possible. Unfortunately I used the computer for a month or so before I made this brilliant decision, and have my entire last week's study notes locked away in MS Word files. Problem is, now my computer is as "brand new" as ever, and my MS Word won't open without a Key, which of course I don't have.:banghead I'm pretty sure I'm screwed, and should probably be slapped for being so hasty, but if there is another option besides buying a brand new version of MS Office/Word/Whatever, I would love to hear it.

 

Greetings, Mrrb, and welcome to MajorGeeks.

That doesn't sound good - I'd imagine that your files are toast. The only thing I can come up with is maybe finding any folder(s) that might contain your data and transferring them to another machine with a running MS Office - but I've got a feeling that Office would have wiped your files during the re-installation.

Be patient, however - I'm sure other MGs will jump in and offer some opinions.

By the way: that looks like a hot rod machine - way to go on the good deal.

 

I'm sure you made a backup before resetting your PC, so there shouldn't be a problem to retrieve your files and serial number from the backup.

 

Made a backup, it's not in there.

 

LibreOffice or OpenOffice will open MS Word documents and they are free.
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.libreoffice.org/

They'll get you by until you can buy a new key. If you're in school, the bookstore might sell the student ed. of Office cheap.

 

Well, the end result was $85.00 for a student subscription of Office 365. I kinda feel like I just paid the mob to keep me safe for another yr, lol.:hammer God bless Micro:crap and all their monopolistic products. Can't say Mac is any less though I suppose, guess that's just the way it goes. Thanks all for the attempts, but not many ways around this one I suppose. On the bright side, I was able to finagle their Tech support into working out some corrupt files that I think may have caused the whole mess in the first place. I had been hoping that issue was resolved upon the factory reset, but apparently not. Here's hoping I pass my test on Monday after 8 hrs wasted on hold/waiting/yelling/breaking things...