Windows 10 Gurus. "Upgrade" installed new windows - lost all programs

[cstreit]

Hey gang,

REcently i had a problem with my main boot drive. Was able to recover it but it looks like the boot sector was corrupted. So I recovered it but WIndows installed a "new" copy of itself and renamed my old one as Windows.old.

All of my previous programs (Office, etc..) are still on the drive but unregistered and I can't make most work.

Is there any way to recover and reactivate ProgramFiles from another location?

[GH85Carrera]

You have to watch carefully when it is in Windows recovery. It asked if you wanted a fresh copy. No big deal if you have all the install files and the data backed up.

Step on is get a new hard drive. Recovering from the Windows.old will likely require you to call Microsoft tech support. I was happily surprised when I called them with a weird issue when working on my MILs computer. Microsoft tech support is pretty good.

[Scott Douglas]

Yeah, +1 to what Glen said. You really have to watch what Windows does in recovery.
Don't ask how I know.

[cstreit]

Yeah - the issue is here that I DON'T have the installation media. ...and I can't find the license code. I bought Office through a program with a former employer for home use.

[Scott Douglas]

I had a similar situation.
What happens if you go into the Office program files and click on the .exe file to start it up?

[cabmandone]

How old is your version of office?

[cstreit]

My office version is 2013.

The office programs aren't "registered" and don't show up under installed programs. I tried running the EXE's after laying down a backup of office into my new drive... It simply comes back and says "office has a problem and must shut down.

My guess is missing a file installed in sys32 or registry entries are missing.

[cstreit]

The issue is since office isn't "registered" in programs and features, I can't get it to "repair"

[john70t]

There are old versions of MS Office available on the net...caveat emptor of course.
Get it from a reliable big user source.
Otherwise it would be a nightmare trying to copy over all the missing registry keys and sub-folders, even when going through each OS folder side-by-side.

Or use another free compatible program and transition to that.

No way I would pay for a monthly $ubscription and be required to put my proprietary data on the 'net each time.

[GH85Carrera]

Assuming you have legal registered copies, just call Microsoft. When I was modifying an older computer with lots more ram and a bigger hard drive all was fine until there was a new update. It went in endless loops of trying to install the update.

I called Microsoft and in the end got bumped to a higher tier of support. I had to let them log into my computer and the tech made several changes to the registry, and ran some repair programs. Suddenly all was working.

It was all very professional and worked like it should. Infinitely better than the Dell tech support which was some guy in India and he could not speak in English much better than my Latin.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Assuming you have legal registered copies, just call Microsoft. .

I purchased these 10 years ago with no recollection as to the email or credit-card that was used. Smells like 4 hours on the phone.

[rockfan4]

Chris,
A couple things to try. Run the vbs script to retrieve the last 5 digits of your key, just to see if it is there.

C:\>cscript "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\office15\ospp.vbs" /dstatus
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
SKU ID:
LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_MAK edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, RETAIL(MAK) channel
LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED---
Last 5 characters of installed product key: *****
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

C:\>

I also ran belarc advisor and it retrieved the Windows and office keys, but my issue is the last 5 retrieved by the method above don't match the last 5 retrieved by belarc. So I don't know which one to believe, I just hope my hard drive doesn't die.

You could always install open office or libre office.

[cstreit]

Originally Posted by rockfan4

Chris,
A couple things to try. Run the vbs script to retrieve the last 5 digits of your key, just to see if it is there.

C:\>cscript "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\office15\ospp.vbs" /dstatus
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---Processing--------------------------
---------------------------------------
SKU ID:
LICENSE NAME: Office 15, OfficeProPlusVL_MAK edition
LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 15, RETAIL(MAK) channel
LICENSE STATUS: ---LICENSED---
Last 5 characters of installed product key: *****
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---Exiting-----------------------------

C:\>

I also ran belarc advisor and it retrieved the Windows and office keys, but my issue is the last 5 retrieved by the method above don't match the last 5 retrieved by belarc. So I don't know which one to believe, I just hope my hard drive doesn't die.

You could always install open office or libre office.

Thanks for the leads.