Windows 10 now requires a password to restore and password is no longer valid

[Steve Lamonte]

I restarted my machine after vacation and it won't boot into windows. Hardware and bios are all good. I ran manufacturer tests. My backup win10 boot software from usb allows me to get to restore under advanced system restore but all options now requires a password and all drives are portioned GPT. My admin password isn't valid, or doesn't take, or has been changed by some virus! so now I can't restore or reload windows onto hard drive due to all 6 partitions, that windows created, are GPT. I have no room left on HDD to create another partition, even if I wanted too. What is going on? This seems more like an attack versus a software update from Microsoft..

 

[Bighorn]

I just finished a System Reset on an HP 17" G72 Notebook and have only 4 Partitions, 3 are NTFS and 1 is FAT32 HP_TOOLS (E. This was originally a Windows 7 computer.

 

[Saltgrass]

You sort of skipped over the part about it not booting into Windows, what exactly is it doing?

Anytime you use a recovery drive made for that system it will ask for a password. The password is your normal password so that should work. But we have seen systems which have encountered problems booting into the normal User Profile. A normal install media will not ask for a password but may not be able to do certain things recovery media with a valid password can.

A GPT drive is normal for a UEFI system. It sound like you might be trying something you need to re-evaluate.

 

[Trouble]

You might be able to rescue your computer by enabling the normally hidden / disabled Administrator account and use that to possibly fix the password problem on your local user account.
You'll need to boot from the installation media. If you do not have the installation media on hand you can download the ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD, http://imgburn.com/
or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, http://rufus.akeo.ie/
either of which you can use to boot your computer.

THEN...
Follow the steps outlined here
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/

It works, I've used it on multiple occasions.