Help with license file...pcalchemy.

[jryan15]

I'm stuck trying to install sagetv on my new solid state drive. I have a string of emails from Sagetv with all of my upgrades and media extender licenses, but I do not have my email with my original license and the client license from pcalchemy.

The email was from an insight email account which preceded a comcast account with has since been obsoleted for a gmail account...

The latest email from sagetv was that they don't have my original license number since i bought it from pcalchemy. i feel like i'm stuck in a loop. I do have the original hard drive intact and can run my full sagetv setup, but there seems to be no way to extract my license key...

Is there a license file floating around? Can I copy and paste my entire sagetv directory into my new sagetv directory? Since pcalchemy is long gone, I have no idea what to do.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!

[BobPhoenix]

If it is stored anywhere it would be in a protected part of the windows registry that cannot be dumped. It is also possible that the only thing stored is a unique string that identified the PC but doesn't have anything to do with the actual key. You could duplicate your existing boot drive to your SSD. Products like Acronis Disk Director or True Image can copy a source partition that is bigger than the destination partition as long as the used space is smaller than the destination. Another option is to buy a licence on the market place here or eBay.

[jryan15]

Thank for the reply. I can't/don't want to clone my old drive. The old drive is 320gb with a lot of it used, my new drive is a 120gb ssd. I'd have to do a lot of paring down to get it small enough. I also enjoy the idea of working off of a fresh build with my new ssd.

I can't stand the idea of re-buying software for no good reason. Especially after paying for every update along the way. I'm frustrated that for all this time, I've had to stash away 8 product keys for one software application. Now I can't find two of them, and my software doesn't work.

Since pcalchemy went out of business, Sage should have released a transfer utility for those users who no longer have a means of key recovery ie contacting SageTV support to have there key emailed to them. Now that Sage is all but done, I guess I'm out of luck. Maybe I should just sell off the keys that I have and use the proceeds to buy a mini-pc's to replace my set top boxes.

[tmiranda]

I'd try asking support again. Plead your case and ask nicely, it seems you can't be the only one out there with a lost pcalchemy license. You obviously bought the updates (and have proof) so logic dictates you must have also bought an original license at some point.

I'm not sure how prevalent bootlegged licenses were, maybe support is afraid of opening up the floodgates?

[rgroves]

I lost a PCAlchemy license, and after pleading my case, ended up buying one off the grey-market a few weeks before the SageTV team announced the ability to sell/trade licenses and extenders.