worn Windows 7 Home Premium sticker - wanting options

[dude1]

I'm currently helping a neighbor whose hard drive in his toshiba laptop is going bad,
I was unable to image it.
Luckily I was able to pull off the little bit of personal information that they didn't already have backed up, unfortunately their backups weren't in images. Just a weekly copy of desk top, documents, pictures etc.

Anyway to my initial question they have a Toshiba laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium unfortunately the sticker is worn off, I can't even make out one of the sections fully or the barcode
Normally if this was a paying customer I would tell them to go purcahse a new copy of seven or I would talk to manufacturer for recovery CDs which I believe Toshiba charges $30 US

Anyway, Being that I'm doing this for free and my neighbor doesn't want to pay anything Beyond me talking them into new hard drive.
what are my recovery options?
the serial that I pulled with jellybean is just a generic OEM key that won't activate.
Is there a place in Windows where I can recover the real key, or is it possible to recover the activation details from this dying drive?

thanks

 

[fabs]

Hi,
you will not be able to recover anything within windows since the key on the COA have never been entered for activation (you would have found it if it was the case). The only option you have is to activate Windows the OEM way.
I have found that article : https://techdoors.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/activating-windows-7-oem-way/
Hope this helps

 

[nlinecomputers]

Have a look here: https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/automate-slp-activaiton.67396/#post-525982