Logging in Problem

[boxxy]

Hi all, a newbie and old fella here so please be gentle with me LOL
I have an Acer Notebook I am having problems logging into and wonder if someone can help please?

It is about 3-4 years old and not sure if windows 7 or 8
I recently cleaned it up and deleted unwanted programmes so we could give it to our grand daughter to use for home schooling during lock down
All went fine it was working as usual and luckily she got her school work off and printed before my problem started, however when she went back to use it again, after turning it on she was prompted to put in a password - now here is the problem, we were only ever prompted to put in a numeric PIN number to get into it

I tried what my normal passwords i thought i may used but that doesnt work
So we tried the next step and tried the password hint, that didnt work (i have obviously forgotten what my hint even was)

So last resort I tried reset password and got the following message from the Password Reset Wizard

"If you forget the password from the user account and are unable to log on this wizard helps you reset the password
Note: To use this wizard, you must have first created a password reset disc"
( I know i have not created a password disc)


Click Next get this message
"The password key is in the following drive Data (E)"

Click Next and get the following message
"This disk is not a password reset disk"

So consequently I cannot access this computer

Can anyone help me get around this to get it functional again for my Grand Daughter

Thanks for your patience
Boxxy

[kburra]

If you have Windows install disk 7,8, or 10...I would on another computer download "Dban" free,burn onto a CD..and format the laptop..then do a clean install...there are places where you can download a Reset password ISO then Burn the ISO file to Disc,insert that into the laptop and just follow the prompts..only telling you this for information....is probably not allowed in this forum for any links etc.

[boxxy]

Thanks for trying but that all means nought to me sorry, i am not that computer literate and there is no disc drive anyway, it is a notebook not a laptop

[kburra]

Ok, for future reference you can always buy an External CD player that via cable connects to a USB port on a laptop or notebook and acts the same as a normal disk drive,"just saying"

[Lisa_maree]

If you used to login with a Pin then it is likely it is running Windows 10. If so with the windows updates there was recently an update that tried to get users to use their Microsoft account or email as the login.
This site explains it better than I can https://www.howtogeek.com/442609/confirmed-windows-10-setup-now-prevents-local-account-creation/
The problem I think is the May 2019 update was installed and this changed the way windows logon works as it says on the site if you can get back into windows you can change it to a local account again.
If you have another computer you could download the windows install media and reload the netbook https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You will need a 16 Gb blank pen drive its worth keeping a windows 10 install pen drive up to date for these situations