Please help!!

I did something stupid. My computer completely went crazy and I needed to restore (except there were no resore points) so I had to go back all the way to the beginning. Anyway, I had an Office 2007 on the computer, which is now of course not functional. I still have the files as the recovery didn't really remove them, but the program itself won't work. It is also gone from the registry as far as I can tell. I can see only folders named Common and Outlook under Office\12. I have the CD, but I don't have the CD key. I do have the product ID which I naively thought is the product key. I can't find the key in any of the .txt files in the Office folder and I don't know where esle to look. I also downloaded Product Key finder, but of course that can't find the key, because the the Office isn't really installed. Please help!! There must be a way.

Ketke

One of the basic issues of NOT backing up your data and programs...

You have reformatted and reinstalled your original operating system to "as first purchased" condition. You might be able to remove the harddrive and slave it to another computer and run some recovery programs that may or may not be able to find the COA for Office 2007. The key is not located anywhere on the CD and is usually non replaceable....although you might contact Microsoft and explain to them what you did and they may or may not discount a replacement COA for your installation CD of Office 2007.

My knowledge of this is that the COA is located on the CD case(box) or on the inside of the paper foldout that the disc comes in! You need to locate those and look for the COA sticker.

Aaaah. I was afraid of that. I will search the garage maticulously (we moved). I already called Microsoft, but the problem is the product has a volume license and the University I bought it from won't replace the key, because they don't keep track.

What is the product ID good for then?

For identifying the correct product when there are hundreds like products on the shelf...lol or even for ordering online by product number! It is similar to a UPC bar code.

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Your having a volume licensing product with an educational( student/teacher) designation means that you are stuck with only that CD....even if you find the COA it may no longer work for activation as those licensing agreements change from all the different (yearly) upgrades and as such the older versions are sometimes deactivated. That is why you can't get the key from the university anymore as it may be no longer valid.

So, I ended up buying another Office. I am sure two weeks from now I will find the original sleeve with the key. Thank for all the help.