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  • Recovering from a serious hard drive crash usually means replacing the hard drive and reinstalling Windows and then reinstalling all of your favorite software titles. Microsoft Word is the world's most popular word processing program, and many individuals and organizations have based all their word processing work on Word and the other Microsoft Office products. Under certain conditions, you can reinstall Word on your new hard drive setup.

    Validation of Word

    Like Windows, Microsoft now also "validates" all its Office products like Word. This validation process ensures that the copy of Word on your computer is authentic and properly registered to you and your machine. Whenever you use the services of Microsoft Updates on the Internet, Microsoft quickly scans your Registry looking for valid Office product keycodes. Before you can reinstall Word on your machine, you must locate this valid keycode. It cannot be in use by any other computer in the world: Your keycode is unique. This vital keycode is found on the documentation that comes with your authentic Microsoft Word installation disks.

    Lost Keycodes

    If you cannot find your certificate of authenticity (COA) keycode because your Word packaging or documentation has been lost, you can sometimes recover the keycode from your hard drive. Download a free tool, Keyfinder, and boot the hard drive. Keyfinder will detect and report the keycode registered to you. This trick only works if you can boot the drive containing the old installation of Word. It will not work if the drive is dead, "slaved" as a secondary drive on another machine or operated as an external USB drive on another machine. If you cannot recover the COA keycode, purchasing another copy of Word (new or used) may be your only option. If you buy a used copy of Word, get a guarantee that the keycode comes with the disk and has not been registered to another user.

    Reinstallation Disks

    You will need to use an authentic copy of the Word install disk to replace Word on your hard drive. You cannot reinstall Word from mere setup files on another hard drive. If you don't own a Word install disk, you can borrow one from another source, so long as the version of Word on the disk matches the version of Word that goes with your unique keycode. If your keycode pertains to Word 2003, for example, you cannot use a Word 2007 install disk. If your computer came with a Recovery Disk, and Word was already installed on your computer when you purchased it, it is possible that the Word installation program is located on this Recovery disk. In any event, you must use your keycode to activate your Word license.

    Other Options

    If buying a new copy of Word isn't in your budget, there is an alternative available: OpenOffice, the free suite of productivity software from Sun Microsystems, is the fastest growing download in the world in 2010. The OpenOffice programs work, and they both "read" and "write" documents that are compatible with most versions of Microsoft Word docs.

    Source:

    Microsoft Support: "Reinstalling Word," 2010

    "Repairing Microsoft Windows," Scott Mueller; 2008

    More Information:

    Download Keyfinder

    Download OpenOffice

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