Recover serial from QuickBooks 2005

[TAPtech]

Got an interesting call- autobody shop got a new computer and trashed the old one but kept the hard drive. They were under the impression that they could just transfer all of the old data and programs over. Old system was XP and the new one is W8 so um, naganawork.

Anyhow, they had QuickBooks 2005 and can't find any of the installation media or serial information. I was able to download the installation package but have no clue where to find the old serial.

I tried loading the registry from the old hard drive but don't see anything labeled as Intuit or QuickBooks. Anyone have an idea?

 

[nlinecomputers]

I doubt Quickbooks 2005 would run correctly on Windows 7 or 8. They need to buy a new copy of QuickBooks.

 

[TAPtech]

Yeah, that was my first statement to them as well. I figured I might as well give it a shot though.

 

[tek9]

Use disk2vhd to make a vm of the old hdd. Log in and open qb to grab the serial from there.

 

[Porthos]

The oldest version of Quick books that will run on Vista or newer is 2007.

You should be able to get the company file and import it into the new version that they WILL have to buy.

1. Install Quickbooks on the new desktop, follow the installation wizard,
2. Open QuickBooks and when prompted, select to view a sample company
file.
3 Once the sample company is open go to the help menu and select update QuickBooks
After the download is complete, close QuickBooks and open QuickBooks again. If an
update existed that was not part of your installation CD, QuickBooks will prompt you
to install the update.

Now you are ready to move the company file from the old laptop
A Open QuickBooks on the old computer and create a backup of the data file onto a flash
drive.

B. I recommend creating a folder on your computer in My documents or
on the C drive called QuickBooks data

C. Plug the flash drive into the new computer

C. Open QuickBooks on the new computer > From the file menu choose open or restore a company
file > select restore backup > navigate to the flash drive > select the Data file to restore
Then click next and in the next window, navigate to the QuickBooks data file and restore the file. QuickBooks will ask you to agree to update the file to the new edition. You will need to know the admin password

Source http://en.allexperts.com/q/Quicken-Other-Budget-1432/2012/1/transfer-files-quickbooks-2005.htm

 

[TAPtech]

Use disk2vhd to make a vm of the old hdd. Log in and open qb to grab the serial from there.

All I have is the old HDD. I didn't know you could do that with just the HDD, thought you had to run the converting program after booting the machine.

Does it work like that??

 

[mikeroq]

I've used these methods to recover QB serials, for anyone's reference.

For QB 2007 and above:

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/HOW12495

There is a file called qbregistration.dat It has the product number and license number.

For older QB 2006,2005,2004 etc (16.0,15.0,14.0,...)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Intuit/QuickBooksRegistration/version number/edition

Look for LicenseNumber and InstallID (product number).

I noticed you said you didn't see Intuit in the registry, that doesn't sound good.

All you need is the hard drive, this is what I do:

1) Disk2VHD their OS partition
2) Make a new VM in Virtualbox
3) If OS doesn't boot, run Paragon P2P Adjust OS.
4) OS Boots if it is working correctly

Since this is XP it might boot up saying you need to activate windows, if it says you must activate and doesn't give you a grace period boot into Safe mode with command prompt and run this:

rundll32 syssetup,SetupOobeBnk

This will reset the grace period. Reboot and you should be able to get in.