missing system info at startup

Question

Greetings. I seem to have lost the file that shows system information. That shows up at every boot. 'System info missing or corrupt.'

So I have no apparently pertinent info(product key) to activate windows. I have win 7 with sp1. I have a dv6 hp notebook about 6 or

7 yrs old. Never had this problem b-4. May be because I never had to do a re install. So no warranty. No readable product key on old

faded label. I was wondering, since recovery is on **** D, is it possible to somehow copy pertinent missing files from disk D to disk C?

Sure I have recovery disks available but my disk drive busted and came out a few years back. Perhaps an external dvd drive might help? Anyway, this blasted product key business has me at a stand still. No key, no activation. And so, can I copy missing system info from D to C, since they're both on same hard drive? I may be showing my lack of computer knowledge here but that's why I'm here.

Laptop's running fine btw, but the countdown to activate or bust continues. Yikes. Thanx.

Answer 1

Is that really exactly what the error message says:

System info missing or corrupt

You say the laptop is running fine so how do you get past that error message?

Using these instructions are you able to post a screen shot of the error message so we can see it?

How to include a screen shot in your post

What happened prior to this incident that compelled you to do a reinstall?

If your disk drive is busted how did you perform this reinstall?

Answer 2

Hi,

To activate Windows 7, product key is always necessary. We suggest that you contact your laptop manufacturer and check if they can still provide you the product key of your laptop. You can also use an external USB DVD Drive to run the recovery disk.

Feel free to post back if you have other queries or concerns.

Regards.

Answer 3

I should mention, and not sure if this even applies, but I found the system info folder msinfo32, created in 2010.

In the properties box I clicked on previous version and it came up with an msinfo32 from 2009.  I'm wondering if

that can be reused? In other words can I roll back to the 2009 (original) version and perhaps have all necessary

system info that is now missing, as stated in my previous post.  I'm no techy but is that workable or laughable, haha.

Just wondering.