[SOLVED] Laptop BIOS Only Boots From CD/USB In Legacy Mode - How To Boot From USB With Legacy Disabled?

[WestonG]

Hey,

So, I'm trying to recover a Windows 10 account password for a family friend that has forgotten the password on a HP pavilion laptop.

The laptop boot loader is only allowing me to select a bootable USB or CD as the boot option, if legacy mode is enabled within the bios. If legacy mode is off, the CD and USB boot option are not listed within the boot loader. It shows only 'OS Boot Manager (UEFI)' and 'Boot from EFI file'.

The issue with this is that, though I can load password recovery tools if I use legacy mode, none of them can find Windows 10 unless legacy is off. Secure boot is off in both scenarios. The bios boot order also seems to be ignored in any scenario. As it always loads to Windows regardless of boot order, if I try to boot normally instead of through boot loader.

I need to boot from USB with legacy disabled so that the recovery tools can find Windows 10.

How can I force USB boot with legacy mode disabled?

 

[WestonG]

Any ideas why it won't boot from USB/Disk unless legacy is enabled?

 

[Remeca]

Why don't you try hooking it up to another pc as a secondary drive? Another pc should at least see it, and have access to the contents if you had the password, so maybe your password recovery software can work with that. Other than that, I don't know, and discussing password and security bypassing etc isn't really allowed here.

 

[WestonG]

Why don't you try hooking it up to another pc as a secondary drive? Another pc should at least see it, and have access to the contents if you had the password, so maybe your password recovery software can work with that. Other than that, I don't know, and discussing password and security bypassing etc isn't really allowed here.

I'm not asking for help with recovering the password,

And don't need to discuss that. Was merely being honest. And helping a friend. She hasn't used the laptop for years and she has family holiday pictures on it she cannot replace. I'm just trying to work out why the bios will not allow booting from a USB/Disk drive unless it's in legacy mode. I wouldn't even be able to install Windows fresh, if it won't boot from USB or Disk. It's clearly not the normal behaviour. As it should boot from USB with secure boot disabled.

Again; I'm only asking for assistance pertaining to why the laptop will not load from USB nor show USB as a boot option in boot-loader, unless it is in legacy mode - which Windows 10 doesn't support.

 

[WestonG]

Resolved the issue. Managed to boot from CD.