Recovering my key after Windows died, now using Ubuntu Karmic Koala.

[witchzenka]

I have my disk.  I cannot find my manual because I'm an idiot and recently moved.
At some point after the move, my Windows installation died and died hard.  I suspect it was the hard drive because we also can't install Ubuntu on that machine.  (Windows disk is also missing.)
I can see some of my files when I run that machine with Ubuntu from the disk drive.  Can I find my Sims 3 registry key that way somehow, and if so, how?  Because I will be a little peeved if I have to pay the $10 stupid tax to get a replacement number.
We have this second machine of parts given by various friends.  There's no driver for the ATI graphics card, and there was no OS, but Ubuntu runs fine on this and Sims 3 was installing through PlayOnLinux just fine until it asked for my key, and I opened my case... and the manual wasn't there.
I hate bothering anyone over silly things like this, but after exhausting my googlebone and coming up with nothing useful, I figured if anyone could help, it would be the people here.

[Claeric]

Turn on your antivirus and find a keygen. Or go to youtube and search for a key, people post them there for some reason.

[Rainbow_Brite]

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5551829/EA_Games_Generic_Multi_KeyGen_v209_By_ChattChitto

Works perfectly.

[witchzenka]

I've never used a torrent or a key generator before, but it appears Ubuntu did the work for me!  Thank you.  I'll try installing now and see what happens. 

[Anach]

If you can access your drive from another operating system or recovery disk you can access your user registry from some type of registry editor and retrieve your key.

Rough instructions are as follows. I haven't had to do this for a while, so you might want to Google for further details.

The easiest way to do this is to use another windows install to read your drive. Load up regedit, click on hkey_local_machine then in the file menu click "load hive". Then browse to the folder which contains your user hive, which in XP is C:\documents and settings\USERNAME\ and you need the software hive. Once that is loaded you can browse to your loaded hive then software/electronic arts/sims/sims3.

Or get a keygen.

Good luck.

[witchzenka]

Thank you so much.  I appear to be good to go finally (and have found a Windows disk and reinstalled and it appears to be working) and am now happily preparing to download all the crap i cannot live without for my Sims.