Windows Vista Product key is faded out, help

[anger204]

I am having little bit trouble... I have HP DV6700 laptop with Vista Home Premium. The OS Product key is completely faded out and it is not readable. My hard drive is fully corrupted and have to replace it. In addition, I do not have Recovery CD which I purchase from HP. So, my questions here are

a) Is there any software available to find actual Windows Product Key? or is there any way, I can find the product key. I am even ready to but that software. I tried several ones and none of them could find the OEM product key

b) Though my hard drive is corrupted, I was able to clone the hard drive to a new one using Acronis, but it took 6 hours and I have to ignore so many tracks due to corruption of Hard Drive. The first thing what I did after installing the new hard drive was made a set of Recovery CD and and reformat the system to factory image. System came back alive but the problem is I can NOT use windows update (error code: 8024A000) or can not install any of the Service Packs (1-2) which are in CD (error code again). I believe, my recovery partition is corrupted. The easiest solution is purchase Recovery CD from HP. But is there any other solution to get the windows update done. Web browsers are working fine.. IE is v7.0. Current OS: Vista without any Service Pack or updates.

I would really appreciate if somebody could help me to find any software or solution to find the actual windows OEM product key from the computer

[Expertz]

You can try to download a software called Belarc Advisor which will let you know which Product Key you have used in your system. And for Windows Update, you can go to the microsoft update website and then download any of the individual windows update files to your computer and save it as you like.

[anger204]

Thank you so much for your response.

a) In my experience, Belarc Advisor can not find the product key if the windows is installed by OEM. If you install OS with a product key, then, you will be able to find the product key by Belarc Advisor even you don't remember the product key...

b) I have the Service Pack in CD, but I was not able to install it since I am getting error code while installing.

If anybody know any software which can extract the windows Product Key for OEM, please let me know... I have already tried lot of Software like Key Finder, Jelley Bean, etc.

[ApPy10]

You mean to say that even Magic Jellybean Keyfinder is not able to find the OEM product key? In any case, since you have difficulties with the product key sticker, then you should contact HP to find out if they have a record of your purchase and let you know about same.