From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and
tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John



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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On 9/29/25 2:46 PM, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

Define 'didn't work'. Didn't boot, or didn't give any favorable results from the software.?
--
Linux Mint 22.2, Thunderbird 128.14.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 143.0.1
Alan K.
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

Is your purpose to logon to the device or just gain access to his
document data on the device?

Fyi...if you bootable Partition Assist Professional is AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, it is unlikely to help since it's purpose is for
disk and partition management, not access to content in a user's Windows
logon profile or help for logging on to a user's Windows logon profile.
--
...w-i|#-o-#-n|#
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Mon, 9/29/2025 2:46 PM, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

User manual. Page 57 looks like "consumer" security recommendations.
The usual BIOS password scheme. Windows Admin and User passwords.

https://kaas.hpcloud.hp.com/pdf-public/pdf_12722071_en-US-1.pdf

Consumer class passwords (all of my computers here), are cleared
by removing the BIOS battery, so the CMOS RAM drains. of course,
the CMOS battery isn't mentioned in the maintenance manual (grrr...).

Business class passwords (computers typically coming with Windows Pro),
the password is stored in a 2kB EEPROM. Pulling the main battery
and the BIOS battery, does not help with business class computers.
The passwords remain set, even after all electrical power is removed.
That would be why I would be more comfortable, working on a Consumer
class computer. "Zeroing" the 2KB EEPROM does not work either.
There is a "stamp" stored in there, validating that a BIOS wrote
the password and not a bozo-attempt to fiddle it.

Local Windows (Administrator Group) account can be hacked (will
take research to find a working method, some methods require Safe
Mode booting). Cloud passwords in the form of an MSA, may be reset
if you have control of the MSA mail account (circular dependency
of course, for working on a deceased-persons goods, as the
account info could be encrypted on the drive or something).

Disk drives can have FDE capability (full disk encryption supported
by the storage drive firmware). When Windows is not inclined to
support "real" Bitlocker, it instead harnesses FDE. If the machine
owner has a "recovery disc" sitting on the desk, this may be used
to decrypt a drive.

If the machine has a TPM, DO NOT reset the TPM, as it may have
a key for the storage stored in it. A consumer class machine
could still have Secure Boot, but since the TPM has two functions
(Secure Boot support and disk encryption support), you can turn
off a TPM but it's not a good idea to erase it unless you know
that nothing else depends on its integrity.

*******

Maintenance guide (not enough info for my liking):

https://kaas.hpcloud.hp.com/pdf-public/pdf_11918738_en-US-1.pdf

Has an M.2 (NAND storage) slot and also room for a SATA 7mm 2.5" HDD.
Both of these could be cabled up to your technician machine...
once you determine the M.2 type. The M.2 could be SATA based or PCIe
based, and the manual. The manual indicates both types fit.

Description Spare part number
512 GB, PCIe, NVMe L22584-001
256 GB, PCIe, NVMe L22583-001
256 GB, SATA-3, TLC L22582-001
128 GB, SATA-3, TLC L22581-001

My computers support "at least" the first two. The keying on the edge
of the module may declare the type (as well as the label on the module
if it is present). You remove the M3 screw on the one end, and angle
the module up to remove it.

In a forensic situation, where anything is possible, a "dd.exe"
dump of the storage devices might be a good idea. That is so no
efforts by the forensic technician, "damages the goods" :-) I've
never worked with "dd" and "NVMe drives" so I don't know what
a good command is for one of those really. They have an identifier,
and eventually you could figure out what the raw device identifier is.
NVMe are not naive devices and can have more than one logical "plane"
to them, and storage can be segmented in the thing, but only
a geek would be fiddling with that. I don't know a thing about
such manipulation (or forensics for it).

You know this individual best, as to whether the person is a "paranoid/security" person and has switched on everything under
the sun in that machine. For example, my collection here, no BIOS
passwords are set, on any machine. I have local passwords and
MSA account, for experimentation purposes, rather than
with some "intent" in mind.

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On 29/09/2025 19:46, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

There are online password crackers and some YouTube videos also show how
to reset a Windows password. Have you tried searching on the YouTube
website?


If your laptop is BIOS-protected and won't boot from a flash drive,
you'll need to open it and remove the CR2032 battery for a few minutes
to reset the boot process. If you're not comfortable opening the laptop, you'll need to pay someone to do it for you; some will charge about 40
dollars for this service. It's a simple job, but you need to know how to
open the laptop securely without damaging anything. Plastics can buckle
easily if excessive force is used.






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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On 29/09/2025 22:37, Fraud Detective wrote:

On 29/09/2025 19:46, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model >> 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security
questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and >> tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work. >>
Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

There are online password crackers and some YouTube videos also show how
to reset a Windows password. Have you tried searching on the YouTube
website?

If your laptop is BIOS-protected and won't boot from a flash drive,
you'll need to open it and remove the CR2032 battery for a few minutes
to reset the boot process. If you're not comfortable opening the laptop, you'll need to pay someone to do it for you; some will charge about 40 dollars for this service. It's a simple job, but you need to know how to
open the laptop securely without damaging anything. Plastics can buckle easily if excessive force is used.

Few consumers bother with a BIOS password and the OP said "I have NO
clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password". That suggests it is the regular
Windows password. An online search will reveal multiple ways to clear or
reset local or Microsoft account passwords.



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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Mon, 29 Sep 2025 21:37:06 +0000, Fraud Detective <fraud.detective@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 29/09/2025 19:46, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model
17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security
questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and >> tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work. >>
Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

There are online password crackers and some YouTube videos also show how
to reset a Windows password. Have you tried searching on the YouTube >website?

I have bobbed about on http://www.LostPassword.com in years long gone
past. I've no idea whether their wares still work.

Hold on ... Okay, they've paywalled everything save their very
simplest tool. Still, they may have a trial period.

If your laptop is BIOS-protected and won't boot from a flash drive,
you'll need to open it and remove the CR2032 battery for a few minutes
to reset the boot process. If you're not comfortable opening the laptop, >you'll need to pay someone to do it for you; some will charge about 40 >dollars for this service. It's a simple job, but you need to know how to >open the laptop securely without damaging anything. Plastics can buckle >easily if excessive force is used.

https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?q=unix+windows+password+recovery&cat=web&language=english

Has suggestions. Lots and lots of them. Enough to keep the OP busy
for the rest of the Millennium. :)

J.






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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

On Tue, 9/30/2025 3:07 PM, John wrote:

On Mon, 29 Sep 2025 21:37:06 +0000, Fraud Detective <fraud.detective@hotmail.com> wrote:

On 29/09/2025 19:46, jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model >>> 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security
questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and >>> tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work. >>>
Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

There are online password crackers and some YouTube videos also show how
to reset a Windows password. Have you tried searching on the YouTube
website?

I have bobbed about on http://www.LostPassword.com in years long gone
past. I've no idea whether their wares still work.

Hold on ... Okay, they've paywalled everything save their very
simplest tool. Still, they may have a trial period.

If your laptop is BIOS-protected and won't boot from a flash drive,
you'll need to open it and remove the CR2032 battery for a few minutes
to reset the boot process. If you're not comfortable opening the laptop,
you'll need to pay someone to do it for you; some will charge about 40
dollars for this service. It's a simple job, but you need to know how to
open the laptop securely without damaging anything. Plastics can buckle
easily if excessive force is used.

https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?q=unix+windows+password+recovery&cat=web&language=english

Has suggestions. Lots and lots of them. Enough to keep the OP busy
for the rest of the Millennium. :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/bp9nul/windows_10_reset_local_administrator_password/

utilman.exe (or osk.exe or sethc.exe)

Doing those from Safe Mode, is supposed to prevent Windows Defender from intervening
in the recipe.

You can get to Safe mode, by installing F8 in the boot menu.

F8 boot menu for Windows 10:

dir /AH C:\boot\BCD # verify it is there.

bcdedit /store C:\boot\BCD /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu True # Editing BCD file, while using Command Prompt from
# Troubleshooting section of Win10 Installer DVD

Besides replacing those utilities with cmd.exe executable,
there is also another method, which I did not write down.
And we try not to discuss that one in public so we
can "keep it", but it is pretty hard to hide things like that.
The AI likely knows all of them. You could give your AI the names
of the utilities suited for replacement strategy, and get the AI
to cough up "the other method".

But this is only for local passwords. I haven't heard of any published methods for attacking PINs or MSA passwords. Short of resetting them, and you'd need
to know the MSA address to control it. Too many tries means you'd be
blocked to some extent or degree.

Paul


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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

...winston <winstonmvp@gmail.com> wrote:

jaugustine@verizon.net wrote:

Hi,

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model 17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

Is your purpose to logon to the device or just gain access to his
document data on the device?

John (Augustine) has not answered that question yet.

But if he 'only' needs to get to the data on the device/disk, he could
try to boot from a USB-memory stick (like the Macrium Reflect 'Rescue
media') and access the disk/data that way.

From his description it seems that he has problems with the *Windows*
(user) password. So there is no BIOS password which prevents booting.

With a bit of luck, the BIOS is set to boot from USB first, or he
might be able to get into the BIOS to select the boot device. (Most
normal users do not (know how to) secure their BIOS.)

[...]
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

Hi,

UPDATE:

My son found a paper my brother used for his laptop's Pass Word.

I am now able to use his laptop.

John

My brother, never married, passed away recently. I got his HP Model
17t-by300 laptop with internal CD/DVD drive.

I have NO clue what the password is and I know 2 of the 3 security
questions, alternative to resetting password.

BTW: I changed the boot sequence (BIOS Settings) to CD/DVD first and
tried a bootable Partition Assist Professional disc, but that did NOT work.

Does anyone know a method?

Thank You in advance John

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