Home » Windows 7 , Install & Uninstall How to Backup & Restore Windows 7 Activation

This is a handy little tool that I stumbled upon, especially useful for those who do lots of re-installs and such.

From: www.recipester.org

Problem
Every time I reinstall windows operating system I have to activate online or activate using phone method. But I have lost windows product key and I find there are so many steps to recover it, so now I want to backup and restore windows 7 activation status. But the problem is how to do that.

Solution [Method 1]
Using Token Restore RETAIL/MAK Tool by Paymyrent
Token Restore will backup the activation files:tokens.dat, pkeyconfig.xrm-ms and your key, don't change key.txt becasue it's used to restore the activation. Then you don't go online to get activated if you have to reinstall Windows 7

Make sure you have activated Windows 7 online with your key and do the followings:

For RETAIL version or OEM SLP Activation:

1. Download the correct Windows 7 Activation Backup Tool:
   Token Restore from link above.
2. Run "Token Restore.exe":
   
3. Click "Backup" button and browse for folder to save your Windows 7 activation status to files.
   
4. Token Restore is saving Windows 7 activation information.
   
5. Finally, the activation status is save as three files.
   
   You must these three files (key.txt, pkeyconfig.xrm-ms and tokens.dat) in good condition and don't make any changes to them.
6. To restore Windows 7 activation status, just click "Restore" button and locate the backup files you saved before.

If you used a MAK or KMS key and the VOLUME activation (on the Enterprise and Professional editions):

1. Download the correct Windows 7 Activation Backup Tool:
   Token Restore MAK Version from link above.
2. Run "Token Restore - MAK.exe" to begin backup Windows 7 MAK/Volume activation information.
   
   Click "BackUp" button to save the activation information to the right location.

[Method 2] Using Windows 7 Reactivator

1. Download Windows 7 Activation Info Backup Tool or from BrotherSoft (Windows 7 Reactivator).
2. Double click to install it.
3. The program should automatically locate your wpa.dbl file and display its location in the file location filed.
   
4. After locating the wpa.dbl file, click the "Initiate Backup" button.
   
5. Choose a location to save the wpa.dbl file. You should save the file to an external storage such as a floppy disk or flash drive.
   
6. Then, you can reinstall the system, and use the stored data to restore the activation authorization.

Tips

• Those tools must be used on your OWN GENUINE Windows 7 to make a backup of the activation.

• Once you have backup windows 7 activation status you can restore any time when you reinstall windows 7.

• The only condition is there should not be any hardware change and this tool is not for bypassing windows 7 activation.

• You must have genuine windows 7 product key to use this tool.

Thanks for sharing this I can see this will come in handy because I too had a problem just like yours. Well thanks for this information

Once you have backup windows 7 activation status you can restore any time when you reinstall windows 7. The only condition is there should not be any hardware change and this tool is not for bypassing windows 7 activation. You must have genuine windows 7 product key to use this tool.

Apparently you didn't see the line in RED text stating the same thing in my OP.

I am new here, and not to sharp about the pc.
so I know this site will be a big help thanks to all and have a good day James

Yeah! Great tips. Few days back I am also facing this problem but at that time I didn't know these tips & tactics. So that I lost my data but in future I will use this tips for backup.

louis, this is strictly for the W7 activation token. It has nothing to do with your actual data (pictures, videos, music, documents, downloads). This is just so after you reinstall you don't have to call Microsoft (and normally if you don't install more than once every 3-6 months you won't have to call anyway).

Whenever you are planning a reinstall you can back-up your tokens to your Documents as described here. You might also back-up all your drivers, especially network drivers. Then you should back up your data and settings to a separate hard drive (I use an external hard drive); this can be done easily with Windows Easy Transfer which is built-in to W7. Gather all your program disks as well. Then you install W7, restore your data and settings, reinstall any drivers needed, reactivate your copy of W7 (using the tokens explained here if desired), and reinstall all your software.