Cannot access laptop.

Jean_III

My Son-in-law died in USA recently.  My daughter has brought home his laptop for me but I cannot access it as no one knows the log-in access codes nor can the email address be reached. His telephone associated with the details is no longer in use.

Can anyone suggest a solution please.

CoastingHatbox

I am really sorry and offer you my condolences.
Is this a PC laptop? Running Windows?

tacpot12

The solution depends on whether you need to recover anything from the laptop; if not, and it has Windows 10 on the laptop already, you might  follow the instructions here to reset it: Reset your Windows 10 local account password (microsoft.com)
If you do need to recover data from the laptop, you might have a look at this software: Reset Lost or Forgotten Windows Password with PCUnlocker (top-password.com)

Jean_III

CoastingHatbox said:

I am really sorry and offer you my condolences.
Is this a PC laptop? Running Windows?

Thank you.

I don't know much about laptops but it is a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2in1.  No idea what is on it.

Jean_III

tacpot12 said:

The solution depends on whether you need to recover anything from the laptop; if not, and it has Windows 10 on the laptop already, you might  follow the instructions here to reset it: Reset your Windows 10 local account password (microsoft.com)
If you do need to recover data from the laptop, you might have a look at this software: Reset Lost or Forgotten Windows Password with PCUnlocker (top-password.com)

Thank you tacpot12. 

I would rather recover data in case there is something my daughter needs but otherwise may have to resort to reset. I will have a  look at both options.

Thanks for replying.

CoastingHatbox

Hi @Jean_III ,

If the laptop is not encrypted (chances are it is not) you could try creating a USB stick with bootable operating system that will let you see the files stored on the laptop and perhaps copy them somewhere else.

When you have the files you want stored somewhere safe, the laptop could be given a clean install of Windows for use by your daughter?

If you have another computer that you can use, you could create a USB memory stick that you can boot the laptop from, giving you access to what is stored on the laptop:

• Download Hirens BootCD PE
  
• Plug the USB stick into the computer,
• Download and run the ISO2USB.exe program
• In the ISO2USB.exe program, select the USB stick and select the downloaded Hirens BootCD PE .iso file
• Click 'Process'
• When ISO2USB.exe says 'ISO Content Succesfully copied', take the USB stick out of your own computer and plug it into your son-in-law#s laptop
• Turn on your son-in-laws laptop and when it gets to the splash screen with the big Dell logo, press F12 to open the boot options menu
• From the boot options menu, select the USB memory stick
• Once Hirens BootCD PE is booted, you can open File Explorer and look into c:\users\<son-in-laws-username> for any photos, videos etc. that you might want to copy. Use a second USB stick or external hard disk drive as a new location for anything you do copy
• There is a feature on Hirens BootCD PE that can be used for resetting local Windows accounts (n.b. if your son-in-law was not using a Microsoft account with the laptop, in which case you might be able to enable the local administrator account and set a password on that, allowing you to log onto the laptop itself)

I hope the above is useful.
Best wishes
CoastingHatbox

J_B

Can you pull the hard drive out https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132018/how-to-remove-the-hard-drive-from-a-dell-laptop#Inspiron Systems Hard Drive Removal connect it to a caddy and extract the data that way?

Jean_III

Hi CoastingHatbox,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. 

When I switch on the machine I get the Microsoft page with a picture of trees and the date and time. Clicking this brings up a request for his pin.   I cannot get past that screen. 

CoastingHatbox

Jean_III said:

Hi CoastingHatbox,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. 

When I switch on the machine I get the Microsoft page with a picture of trees and the date and time. Clicking this brings up a request for his pin.   I cannot get past that screen. 

Yes, the approach above requires a different computer to create a USB stick which you can then boot your son-in-laws laptop from, bypassing the Windows log-in completely. I appreciate it is not the simplest thing to do.

The other option is guessing the pin - perhaps it might be a significant persons date of birth? You will have a few limited tries each time the laptop is booted up though, so this method probably is not going to bear any fruit.

Or as @J_B suggested, removing the hard disk drive and attaching it to another computer.

Jean_III

Thank you @J_B

This is a bit ambitious for me.I am in my eighties and all I know about computers is what I have picked up as I went along.  I think I might  have to pass all your information on to my Grandson and see what he can do.

FaceHead

J_B said:

Can you pull the hard drive out https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132018/how-to-remove-the-hard-drive-from-a-dell-laptop#Inspiron Systems Hard Drive Removal connect it to a caddy and extract the data that way?

This would be the approach I'd recommend. Get a usb enclosure from Amazon or similar, and use it to connect the hard drive to another computer - basically it turns the hard drive into a usb stick, so you can use another computer to browse, view and copy the files.

Whilst opening up the laptop with a screwdriver to extract the hard drive sounds rather intimidating, it's really just like Lego, and you can find how-to videos online.