Windows 8 Password Recovery - Can't boot from DVD?

questionforyou

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I got my 22 year old son a Gateway Desktop computer for his birthday but we had to kick him out of the house for doing drugs, and it's too late for me to return the computer so I want to be able to use it, unfortunately I don't know his password and there's no chance he will tell me. I can't reset the password because it's linked to his email that I don't have access to.

So doing some research online I found some programs to recover the password that I could burn onto a disc and then boot from the disc. The problem is despite changing the boot order in the BIOS to but from CD/DVD (in my case I'm using a DVD), it doesn't boot from it and eventually just goes to the password login for Windows.

I disabled Secure Boot, I didn't have anything called Legacy Boot to enable, but I did disable something called Boot Quiet Mode, and once I did that when I first start the computer instead of getting a Gateway logo I get the Windows logo. I've searched the BIOS and can't find any other type of boot option that would help.

I figure if I could get the darn thing to boot from disc I could try one of the many programs for password recovery but I can't get that far.

Has anyone else found and resolved this issue?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Just to clarify... is this a computer which came from the manufacturer with Windows 8 already installed? I'm assuming Yes in the following...

Do you need to access any files on the computer, or are you happy to wipe everything and start again? If Yes then I think it should be possible to do a "Reset" on the computer, which will reset it back to factory settings. All data will be lost but you should be able to use it as if it was new again.

To do a Reset, switch the computer on and let it get to the Windows 8 login screen. Right-Click on the "power button" icon at the bottom right of the computer. Then hold the Shift Key down as you click on the Restart button.

This is Option Two (Step 5, 2nd screenshot) in this tutorial.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4935-startup-options-menu-boot-windows-8-a.html

This should get you into the Advanced Startup options.

From there you should also be able to select the Reset option. I think it won't ask you for a password to do a Reset (although I'm not 100% sure).

The Reset process and how to do it are described further here:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2302-reset-windows-8-a.html

Just to stress this point again - a Reset will wipe out everything on the computer so you won't be able to get any data back.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
You're not going to be able to "recover" the password; instead, you'll have to settle for resetting the password.
 

My Computer

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