Originally Posted By: Eddie
A friend lost her husband and she is unable to open the computer because of the lost password. How does one start to address this problem? Ed
If she just wants files off the computer, the hard drive can be put into an external enclosure that plugs into a USB drive - then the hard drive file system can bee seen just like it was an external USB drive. You can buy an external case at Best Buy or similar stores.
Along the lines of Best Buy: A colleague put herself through college working as a Geek Squad member at Best Buy. I consulted her about just this problem when a family member came to me, and she advised to take the PC to Best Buy. They'd boot to a CD (probably a Linux disk) and run a script that would remove the password. She said that they did this all the time at her store.
Use live Ubuntu or similar Linux OS and try using the HDD after booting into it - With some luck, the contents of it will be unencrypted and will be readable/ transferrable.
In my experience, lot of times you can put the Hard drive in another computer (or an external dock) and still get access to files. If its a BIOS password those are the easiest simply pull the CMOS battery.
Holy mackerel, there is a lot of talk here about hacking and cracking this and that, and accessing the CMOS. (?!) I am pretty sure OP just wants to access some data but cannot log into the OS.
Just put the HDD into another system or use a live OS from a USB stick to access the HDD. Unless the data has been encrypted there will be no need for a password.
Yes, it shouldn't be an issue at all. The only problem I foresee, outside of encryption, is if it's a hard drive in Windows set up with that stupid hybrid shutdown/sleep mode.