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Long story short, my mom's hp laptop got locked and blocked access as she forgot the password after change. She put everything on system drive so it is not a good ideal to reinstall Windows 10. Any other safe suggestion around?
Last Active: Nov 19, 2024
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If the laptop is blocked at BIOS level and the hard drive is not protected (i.e. you just can't boot the laptop without a password), just remove the drive and connect it to another PC as a secondary drive (not as boot drive). A cheap USB external drive enclosure can help. If it's unencrypted your drive will be visible, but if Windows' user passwords are set and data encryption enabled, then it'll be still locked.
Years ago there was a scandal about drive makers including vulnerabilities so governments could bypass their security; Samsung, Seagate, and maybe others.
If the drive is old (like 5-10 years) there's a chance it's vulnerable, but hacking it isn't easy.