Last December, the Trustees of my church purchased a new, "off the shelf", IBM-based (not a Mac) computer and provided it to our Librarian. She was the first and only one to log on, placed her password on it, used it exclusively for three months, and transferred the catalogue of donated religious books to its hard drive.
Unexpectedly, and sadly, our Librarian passed (pre-Covid). It was subsequently found that there is no documentation of her password and the computer remains "locked".
The church staff now operates in a "reduced Covid capacity". They have had every (few and far between) attempt foiled to access this computer. In fact, they quit trying (methods unknown) six months ago and moved on to "higher priority" issues (understandably), but the issue remains unresolved.
I know for a fact that there is not one "computer wizard" in the entire staff. It just is not in their "wheel house" of religious endeavors. Now retired, I am looking into resolving computer issues for them. Hardware is not my strong suit, though this appears to be a software issue.
Is there a "back door"? Can a late model, "personal password" protected, IBM computer be "hacked" to get around the password protection? We would like to gain access for a dedication to the Librarian and not abandon the work she did (or have to start over) in the catalog of the church library.