Can’t use late mother in laws laptop

[alwayswantchocolate]

My late Mother in law bought a very expensive new Microsoft surface laptop in 2022, which we would like to sell. She was mentally ill before passing away and in a psychiatric hospital. Her life was chaotic. She owes a few people money and I’d like to repay them.

I wanted to do a factory reset but it won’t let me. I don’t have:

• her PIN code (so I can’t log in)
• access to her email account (she lost her password and then the email was discontinued as John Lewis moved to plusnet and she didn’t set up a new email as it was beyond her by then)
• a bitlocker number

Even a hard reset holding down volume down and power button and choosing no to saving any files wants the bitlocker. It then says if I don’t have it to check the persons emails. Which I can’t do.

There are no notes, notebooks or scraps of paper with password s, prior to being sectioned she was throwing her possessions in the bin (until we realised).

Before I give up, is there another way?

I don’t want to see her files, I just want a blank laptop to sell.

Only hope is to go to a good computer shop I'd guess. One that could tell you if it's even possible

@alwayswantchocolate

You could try this man

I've used him for over 12yrs and he solved many issues

I'm very un techno

If local (Kent) he will pop over

If further afield he pops into the laptop via his laptop

www.facebook.com/itcdigital

His name is Paul Williams

But he will say if it can be done or not

You need to download a recovery image from here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface-recovery-image and use a 16GB (or more) USB stick to perform a factory restore.

To download the correct image you'll need to sign in with a Microsoft Account, but don't worry, it can be any - it doesn't need to be your MIL's one.

Then you enter the serial number of the laptop and they'll direct you to the correct Surface recovery image.

If you're prompted to unlock the drive, just choose "skip" and it'll still proceed.

Have you tried this:

Step 1: Start your Surface Pro, Surface Go or Surface RT tablet.
Step 2: On the login page, press and hold the Shift key.
Step 3: While still holding the Shift key, tap the Power button from the bottom right corner and choose the Restart option.
Step 4: After restarting, Microsoft Surface will enter into Recovery Mode. In this mode, click Troubleshoot.
Step 5: On the page of Troubleshoot, select Reset PC to do a hard reset on your Surface tablet without a password.
Step 6: On the next page, you can choose to Keep my files or Remove everything. To factory reset a Surface tablet without password, you have to choose to Remove everything as the former will ask you to provide an administrator password, which you don 't have right now
Step 7: After choosing to erase everything, you 'll have two options: Just remove my files and Fully clean the drive, select Remove my files as it is quicker. It will take hours to fully clean a drive so that the option is not recommended unless you want to sell or give away this Surface tablet.
Step 8: Then there will be a page asking you to confirm the reset action. After confirming, it will start to factory reset the Surface device. Wait till the process bar reaches 100% and then you can log in your Surface PC again without password.

@FlabMonsterIsDietingAgain

That process won't bypass a missing Bitlocker recovery key.

Thank you I’ll try that. I was put off by the need to log into Microsoft as I assumed it would need to be MILsbut I will try with mine.

Yes that’s what happened- I failed because of the bitlocker!

@alwayswantchocolate

Did you manage to complete the reinstall?

I've been on holiday, got back on Sunday, so it's on my list of things to do the USB stick and image approach this week! Thanks for following up.

Still not managed it!
A few days ago, I spent ages trying to unlock my old USB stick which was bitlocker protected, finally got there, then tried formatting my USB stick to FAT 32... refused to do it, goodness knows why
Next day, I got a USB stick off DS1 which I successfully formatted to FAT 32, yay.
Yesterday, I downloaded the recovery image (took ages!), but couldn't create a recovery key because I was on my work pc and it asked for an administrator password so I had to abandon it.
Today, when my DS2 was around I got the password for his PC and started again, downloaded the recovery image (took even longer!), great, started the create the recovery process, and BAM! the USB stick all of a sudden needs to be at least 16GB and it's only 2GB.
I honestly feel like just throwing the laptop in the bin! 😆

@alwayswantchocolate - So I take it you missed the bit in my instructions where I wrote: "...and use a 16GB (or more) USB stick..." ? 😆

Oh yes! 😆

Edited as I saw updates so no longer applicable

It's done! My new 16GB USB stick arrived earlier, I copied the files over, rebooted the laptop from the USB and hey presto, I am in!

Thank you @CobraChicken for your help (and patience with me)! 😆