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How to extract the windows license key from a Lenovo T440p recovery CDs.

October 2014.

Situation

You own a Lenovo T440p with Windows 7 preinstalled, but you have Windows 8 recovery CDs. Unfortunately, your laptop doesn't include a CD drive.

You'd like to extract the Windows License key from the CD and install your computer yourself with a custom image (I mean, who would use a preinstalled Windows image with Norton Security for anything serious).

Chapter 1: extract the key from the CD

Five CDs were provided by Lenovo:

(1) Windows 8 Recovery Media for Windows 8 Products (Disk 1 of 2)
(1) Windows 8 Recovery Media for Windows 8 Products (Disk 2 of 2)
(2) Operating System Recovery Disk Windows 8 Pro (OEM Activation 3.0 Required) (Disk 1 of 2)
(2) Operating System Recovery Disk Windows 8 Pro (OEM Activation 3.0 Required) (Disk 2 of 2)
(1) Windows 8 Recovery Media for Windows 8 Products (Disk 1 of 1)
Office pro 2013

My guess is that we'll find what we need in the largest file contained in the CDs, which should be a Windows installation image.

This file is: M8S4AUS.swm. This looks like a split WIM file.

Let's merge it and open it.


E:\RECOVERY>imagex /export /ref M8S4AUS*.swm M8S4AUS.swm 1 exported.wim "exported"

ImageX Tool for Windows
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
Version: 6.3.9600.16384

Exporting: [E:\RECOVERY\M8S4AUS.swm, 1] ->
           [E:\RECOVERY\exported.wim]
[ 100% ] Exporting progress

Successfully exported image #1.
Total elapsed time: 15 min 49 sec


imagex /MOUNT exported.wim 1 c:\truc

ImageX Tool for Windows
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
Version: 6.3.9600.16384
Mounting: [E:\RECOVERY\exported.wim, 1] -> [c:\truc]...
[ 100% ] Mounting progress
Successfully mounted image.
Total elapsed time: 42 sec

Let's see what's inside.


E:\RECOVERY>dir c:\truc

 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 2E2F-1418

 Directory of c:\truc

2014-10-08  18:30              .
2014-10-08  18:30              ..
2012-07-26  09:33              PerfLogs
2013-03-25  23:07              Program Files
2013-03-25  23:07              Program Files (x86)
2013-03-26  15:02              SWWORK
2013-03-25  23:03              Users
2013-03-26  00:15              Windows
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               8 Dir(s)  22,738,112,512 bytes free

Bingo! This definitely looks like a Windows image.

Download and start ProduKey. Open the Select Source window and Load the product keys from external Windows directory.

Voilà, the associated Microsoft keys are extracted and displayed.

Chapter 2: extract the key from the BIOS

Unfortunately, we did chapter 1 for nothing, since the key R3C2N-HT63Q-F4RKH-KPP3R-3667Q is a generic key called: Windows® 8 Default Product Keys to be used with OEM Activation 3.0.

This means that the real key is embedded inside the computer's BIOS.

Download RWEverything, click on ACPI, and go to tab MSDM.

Your key should be here.

Enjoy your license.