Windows Product Key

Can anyone tell me if its possible to get a windows product key without booting the OS. I have the original windows CD but the little sticker with the key has been removed. I cant get the system to boot, so the key finder that i use wont work in this situation. The computer I'm working on has Win 2000 Pro. Is there any virtual OS i can run from CD without installation? Any options would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

hmm you could hack the disk....but that would take ages
tried asking Microsoft for support?
w2k should be alright for now.
:major:major:major

 

Yes, you can get the product key from a non booting Windows. But- you need either a thumb drive or external USB drive or a floppy drive or 2CD drives. OR- you can take the drive out and slave it to another PC. If you can't do that for whatever reason, here's what you do: you need to create a bootable live CD like a PECD (I use the UBCD4Win; download link is below). Then you need the program ProduKey (just the executable) on a floppy disk/thumb drive/USB external/CD. Now boot to your live CD; this CD must stay in the drive the whole time, that's why you need 2 CD drives if you don't have one of the other options. When you boot to the CD, be sure your USB drive or thumb drive is already plugged in. When the live CD is done loading, get yourself to the Run box and type this:
X:\produkey.exe /regfile "Z:\windows\system32\config\software" and click OK or press Enter. X is the device or drive where the ProduKey .EXE file is located; Z is the drive where you need the product key from. Type the command exactly as I did with the quotes and a space before and after the /regfile
Here's links:
UBCD4Win http://www.majorgeeks.com/UBCD4Win_d5710.html
How-to build the UBCD4Win http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm
ProduKey http://www.majorgeeks.com/ProduKey_d4953.html (unzip and copy the .exe file only to your floppy disk or thumb drive or whatever)
It works! I've done it a bazillion times....

EDIT- For Windows 2000, the command is slightly different:
X:\produkey.exe /regfile "Z:\winnt\system32\config\software" note the difference; Win2000 uses "winnt" and not "windows"...