How to recover account from old HDD?

pequ1
pequ1 Posts: 6 Observer
in Web Browsing

So in short I have following problem. My old father has bought F-Secure license for his laptop. Now he has no idea how he has made it, meaning no recollection what email, passwords etc he has used.

 

Now he had unfortunate thing that his laptop got fried in thunderstorm, plus multiple other devices. He bought "new" second hand business laptop and he would like to have F-Secure, but naturally isn't keen on spending money again on a license, especially after this event. I tore down the damaged laptop and I can apparently recover pretty much anything on it luckily.

 

Now the question is. How can I recover old F-Secure install from his old HDD to his new Windows machine. It has to be possible, but no idea how it's done. 

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Comments

  • Simon
    Simon Posts: 2,667 Superuser

    My suggestion would be to Contact Support by Phone or Chat with as many details as you can, and hopefully they will be able to find his account.  Once that's been established, you should be able to reinstall FS on the new device via his SAFE Portal.

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  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,770 Superuser

    Hello,

     

    I am only an F-Secure user (their home solutions).

     

    First of all, good to know what F-Secure solution (license) was in use.

    F-Secure SAFE (subscription is pinned to My F-Secure Account) or F-Secure AV / F-Secure IS (subscription is only "activation/licence" key)?

     

    Then, I am not sure whether there are lot of emails in use or not - but if solution was F-Secure SAFE:

    "My F-Secure Account" portal https://my.f-secure.com with option to use "Forgot password" functionality.

    At least, it is possible to try some (or main) mail address. If password will be recovered - then all steps for installation are only to use "portal" with ability to download installer and initialize installation.

     

    But, since maybe it was "single device" licence - then maybe it was for F-Secure AV / IS.

    In general, most suitable step is to contact official Support Channel (chat, for example):

    However, need to provide some information about purchase or installation IDs. Although for Support Agent it should be suspicious story. 

     

    Anyway, if it is not possible to recover any information about purchase (date / mail-letter with related information or pinned mail address), but HDD with some information about installation - I think that one place to search something is "Registry" (perhaps, some internal things like ID or even activation key can be visible there). Thus, if it is possible to analysing System Registry - you can to check "F-Secure" keywords.

    Furthermore, if it is possible to use "HDD" (or safely "recover" data to another HDD; with meanings that only hardware is damaged, but it is possible to repair and replace data) and launch system with active installation - then I do able to recommend contact F-Secure Support Channel for their assistance (for example, remote help) with recovering subscription information.

     

    Then, it can be an answer (subscription / activation key or something like this) OR further information for Support (ID of installation / user ID or so).

    But my own opinion is "good to start from checking mails" (purchase confirmation or registration).

     

    Sorry for my English! And strange suggestions.

     

    Thanks! 

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  • pequ1
    pequ1 Posts: 6 Observer

    Yeah I know that I could do it on F-Secure's site, but I have to find out something userdata related on that HDD. Plus generally speaking all support sites are total **bleep** to be honest to contact in this kind of situations if you don't know virtually nothing about the account that has been created.

     

    Now back to real topic. In F-Secures CCR folder I just found out auth.ccr which has password and token hashes. Does somebody know if these could possibly simply be put to new machines install folder? Or are there any files where I would be possible to see in plain text format ie. account email address or something useful?

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  • pequ1
    pequ1 Posts: 6 Observer

    Thanks Ukko. Not actually bad ideas. I think even though hardware is bit different on the machines, I think it might be doable to move hdd to other machine and at least temporarily try boot it on another hardware. Current Windows actually with good luck can manage to get bootable. That way I think I could possibly get into more details.

     

    Though I'll still try to avoid that as it takes quite a bit of time. Just browsed through HDD's log files and from users AppData and F-Secure's log folder (under MySA) I think I just found from stub.log a reference that this install could've possibly been originated from service provider Elisa. I think I'll contact old man and ask if this could ring a bell so-to-say. I guess it could be possible that this would be some internet service provider kit that is included in connection or something. If it is I think this could be sorted out quite easily via them. I assume key in that case would've been prodived by Elisa (internet service provider)

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