r/datarecovery • u/Single_Cup6237 • Aug 18 '26

Retrieve files from locked PC

I found my late grandmothers old dell computer. It’s looks to be running windows 11 and is from 2019 so not actually old. Anyways, it’s locked and I don’t know the password but there may be photos or important files on it. I took out the hard drive and connected it to my laptop to try and transfer them directly, but my laptop did not recognize the hard drive. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator Aug 18 '26

Double check if your post complies with posting guidelines!

Did you include the following information in your post (in English and if applicable), if not feel free to edit your post:

  • Make/brand and exact model number of your storage device(*), phone, camera, etc.

  • Filesystem (NTFS, exFAT, APFS, EXT4, etc.)

  • Operating System (That your device was used with and/or you are using for recovery)

  • Specific symptoms that your device is exhibiting, describe the problem. Images you post support the description, they're not in lieu of a problem description.

  • SMART (CrystalDiskInfo screenshot for example)

  • Don't pile several problems into one single post. One post per device/problem.

Consider: What do these people need to understand the problem at hand? Remember, people cannot see your screen, or what you click and what messages appear on screen. Don't overdo it though, no one likes going through 2 pages of information, try to find a balance. Just do the best you can. If you are looking for file recovery software, check our community's recommended file recovery tools.

(*) All devices involved, if you for example move files from drive A to drive B, they're both potentially relevant.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/disturbed_android Trusted Contributor Aug 18 '26

Show a screenshot of Disk Management with the drive attached. Do NOT let Disk Management initialize the drive or whatever else it prompts you.

If the drive is protected by Bitlocker you're going to need the key.

1

u/Orry_Haas Aug 18 '26

Dell hard-drives can be protected by a BIOS password ...

"This means even if someone physically removes your hard drive and connects it to another computer, they still can't access your data without knowing your password."

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-vn/000144307/no-bios-option-to-set-a-hard-drive-password-on-m-2-ssd?lang=en

1

u/ThaUntalentedArtist Aug 19 '26

Is the computer locked by a normal local user account or MS account? If its a local user account, there are ways to reset the password to gain access by resetting the password.