0

So i have a Toshiba laptop that was left to me by someone who passed away. I can't bring myself to delete her Windows partition in the hopes that one day I will get it unlocked and maybe understand what the f happened to her. It feels like 13 Reasons over here. Its my baby mama's old computer and her daughter needs one for school next year.

Obviously its locked. Should I even try to unlock it? Too late because I did try and failed. None of the passwords she left behind in her notes worked. Her password hint is clear but the password it hints at doesn't work.

Should I give up and wipe the partition table and install Windows?

Is that the ethical thing to do?

I can;t help but try and deep freeze a bootable clone of her internal hard drive now before I wipe it and install. Is there a way to archive it later and explore it if I decide to, through a VM image or backup to external drive somehow...

Musing here and just curious if anyone reads these and responds to this.

user3259519
  • 11
  • 1
  • 1
    Why don't you just enabled the built-in Administrator account and reset the password? – Ramhound Jun 29 '21 at 14:58
  • This feels rather an [XY Problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/66377) - influenced by a moral dilemma rather than an analytical approach to getting into the drive. We first need to know how it's "locked". – Tetsujin Jun 29 '21 at 15:02
  • As to how it's locked. It's just a Windows 8 password at login screen. – user3259519 Jun 29 '21 at 15:06
  • EDIT: We have a boot into Windows login screen with her account and Guest available to select. (Sorry cannot confirm what windows version I think its 7 or 8 from the look of the start menu and login screen. The guest account is severely limited.) – user3259519 Jun 29 '21 at 15:13
  • 1
    So unless EFS was used you should simply use the built-in Administrator account to reset the user's password. This will give you immediate access to the files on the drive. You can then decide if you want to convert the device to a VM or not. Any information required to answer your question should be done by editing your question instead of submitting a comment – Ramhound Jun 29 '21 at 15:13
  • Noted. Thanks all. – user3259519 Jul 01 '21 at 10:17

0 Answers0