Hi, I have just had a new hard drive put in my Inspiron laptop (due to failure of the original hard drive) with the windows 7 home premium os reinstalled by the repair shop. I need to activate windows 7 and I am having trouble reading the activation product key on the base of the laptop as it is rubbed off in places. (I have checked under the battery and there is no sign of it there as a backup).
I have searched around on the Dell support site for info and someone to email, but as they say I am out of warranty support, (laptop is 5 years old) I seem to have to phone a premium number. All I am looking for is some help to get this working again, I have an authentic Windows operating system, the discs, service tag etc and just need the product key, or a new one. I feel that I have already bought all this when I first purchased the system and don't wish to have to pay microsoft for another licence! I have been a loyal Dell customer for many years, but feeling very jaded by the whole thing currently. Seems very hard to get a simple question answered, or a simple link to an email address to ask for some advice. Sorry, rant over! Does anyone have any advice or pointers? Many thanks