To ask for urgent laptop help - i may have just lost all dd's gcse work

[TheoriginalLEM]

Dd laptop had the black screen of death and i found something online to say do a bios update.

So now its logging on but not accepting her password. She cannot recall her Microsoft account name to reset it.

I am such a bad parent - please help

Try opening it in safe mode. Then download documents onto a memory stick and save them.

We had to do this last week with A level and BTEC work

support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

We then took the laptop to an IT guy who had to replace the hard drive, but everything was saved.

If you are unable to recover or reset the password yourself, you can contact MIcrosoft help and they can do it.

support.microsoft.com/en-au/contactus/

Please try not to panic as this is a simple fix.

I agree with pp - leave it to the professionals. You could spend hours on it and not get anywhere, and risk making things worse if you don't know what you're doing.

And yes, back up, back up, back up. On another device, on usb, in the cloud. I sometimes e-mail documents to myself, my system is set up to keep e-mails on the server unless I delete them.

If you only made changes to the bios, your data will still be on the hard disk.

Go to a shop and take a usb drive to transfer the data - they will have the tools and knowledge to help.

I also advise a local it professional first thing tomorrow.

Whatever you do DO NOT format the hard drive as that will wipe anything that was on it

Good luck

We were rescued by an angel in the form of a currys it person. Reset her password and all is well. Not sure why i wasnt able to do it but its done now! Didn't even charge us - very happy Didn't even buy it there dd is busy backing her work up!!

Well done.....

Nice to hear Curry's were helpful😊