Best Practice To Access Deceased Person's Computer

[adgjk]

Hi there, 

 

One of my co-workers siblings has recently passed away, and she and her family would like access to his computer and iPhone so that they can keep the photos on there. 

 

I realize that an iPhone cannot be unlocked without a pass code or fingerprint, but they are hoping that he had it linked to iTunes on his computer so that it can at least perform a backup and take any photos currently on the device and put them on his computer. 

 

What I think needs doing, is taking a backup of the computer first (any recommendations on methods or software for this?) and then trying to gain access to his login. Failing that, they would only be able to pull the images off of the hard drive. I have not seen the computer in question, but I am assuming it is somewhat recent and uses Windows 10 (they know for a fact it's not a Mac). I may update the post at a later date if the computer situation is differs. 

 

We basically would like to know the best practice when trying to gain access, just so that we don't accidentally delete or corrupt any data. 

 

Thank you

[Firewrath9]

you can ask apple to unlock it i think

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204169

[Electronics Wizardy]

What system is this?

 

If its a windows pc and not encrypted you can very easily reset the password or just copy the files off the drive.

[adgjk]

2 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

you can ask apple to unlock it i think

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204169

Thanks, I'll look into that. 

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What system is this?

 

If its a windows pc and not encrypted you can very easily reset the password or just copy the files off the drive.

I believe it's a Windows 10 laptop, but I haven't seen it so I'm unsure. I'm hoping it's not encrypted. If it isn't, how can the password be reset? Does it need to be on a Microsoft account in order to do this? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, adgjk said:

Thanks, I'll look into that. 

I believe it's a Windows 10 laptop, but I haven't seen it so I'm unsure. I'm hoping it's not encrypted. If it isn't, how can the password be reset? Does it need to be on a Microsoft account in order to do this? 

You can reset the password with something like kali linux with ophcrack. Just change it to blank and your in. The security on windows accouts is very bad if you have physical access.

 

 

[adgjk]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can reset the password with something like kali linux with ophcrack. Just change it to blank and your in. The security on windows accouts is very bad if you have physical access.

 

 

Thanks, and this is the same whether it's a local account or a Microsoft account? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, adgjk said:

Thanks, and this is the same whether it's a local account or a Microsoft account? 

microsoft account can be a bit harder.

 

What do you want? If you just want the files, just plug the hdd into anouther system and you can copy them all off.

[adgjk]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

microsoft account can be a bit harder.

 

What do you want? If you just want the files, just plug the hdd into anouther system and you can copy them all off.

So they definitely want the files, but they also want access to his iTunes account. If he has previously synced his iPhone with this computer, then it will be a "trusted" device, so they won't need to type in the pass code on his iPhone to sync that and get any images from there. If we cannot do that, then so be it, and the computer files will have to suffice. I'll just put the drive in a USB caddy and hook it up to a different machine if that's the case. But the main goal is unlocking the computer as the original owner, so that we can attempt to sync the iPhone with iTunes. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, adgjk said:

So they definitely want the files, but they also want access to his iTunes account. If he has previously synced his iPhone with this computer, then it will be a "trusted" device, so they won't need to type in the pass code on his iPhone to sync that and get any images from there. If we cannot do that, then so be it, and the computer files will have to suffice. I'll just put the drive in a USB caddy and hook it up to a different machine if that's the case. But the main goal is unlocking the computer as the original owner, so that we can attempt to sync the iPhone with iTunes. 

Get your hands on this computer first to see how its setup, this seems pretty easy.