Password Not Recognized.

[wm460]

My previous desktop computer built by Leader, windoze did one of their updates, when I restarted it I had to put in the password which for what ever reason it didn't recognize.
I took it to the computer shop in Alice and they said there was nothing they could do with out that password.
Is there any way of breaking it the computer?

Leader Computers – Locally built Australian Owned

leader-online.com.au

I would like to be able to recover my music collection and all my photos.
If I could break into it, recover the above then install Linux on it and use it in my shed.

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day Mark.

I will take a stab and guess that the Leader is out of warranty, is that so?

They have a 1300 number and I don't know if their Support team may help if they think you might buy another Leader.

Can you get into the BIOS utility at all?

If so, you could try disabling Secure Boot and Fast Boot, place USB ahead of the hard drive in boot order and see if you could install Linux alongside the Windows install.

Someone else will likely happen along with more ideas. Most of our American friends are catching zzz's currently.

Wiz

 

[wm460]

Long out of warranty unfortunately, I will set it up and take photos of what I get.

 

[Brickwizard]

Good morning all..
If as @wizardfromoz says, you can get it to boot from your USB pen drive [the minty one] , you could then by using another external drive, use the "Live" mint installation to either transfer the folders from the windows drive to the external drive, or you could install Mint as a dual boot and transfer the folders across to the fresh mint installation

 

[wizardfromoz]

...or you could install Mint as a dual boot and transfer the folders across to the fresh mint installation

Yeah, that was my thought, and if successful, he can then blow the Windows away and redeem the space.

Currently, if this is Windows 8+ (eg 10 or 11), there will be a small ESP (EFI System Partition used by it on the hard drive, it may be 100MB, 300MB or even 500MB. That is more than large enough to be used as a Mint ESP, and with a successful install, you can then use Mint's Nemo File Manager to remove the Windows component to the ESP.

 

[wm460]

I will, all going well have a go on the weekend.

 

[bob466]

Boot to your Mint Live Session...mount the windoze HDD...plug in a Flash Drive or External HDD/SSD and copy and paste or cut and paste the Files across to it.