Obtained one used HDD - W10 Password Protected - Accessing?

Hi folks -

The other day, I received a 3.5 WD 500GB SATA HDD for forensic examination.

I connected the drive to a W10 System using a SATA to USB 3 adapter and was able to mount it.
Then I tried to boot the W10 drive from directly from the USB adapter with success, until I reached the login screen requesting the password.

In this scenario, with a raw drive and connected by USB 3.0 at that, what would be the best way to strip the password?

Remember, I am booting off the USB attached raw drive.

I have an idea, but best to get some opinions, first.

Thanks!

Hacking, Samuria?

No, I don't think so.

Rather than take my client's entire system, I just used the HDD.
Her ex-partner changed the password.

I just need to reset to a generic string, make sure certain files are there where she specified and back into the machine, it goes.

Yes, I have some tools, but doing this via USB is unique to me.

If anyone would like to PM me in confidence, please do so.

Otherwise, I will have proceed back on her PC.

TIA

If it is just a local account, you can simply change the password, eg using utilman method, there are tons of videos on youtube. Since it is just a secondary HDD, simply find and overwrite utilman.exe with CMD.exe and then you can run CMD with SYSTEM rights at logon and change or remove the password (*).

Code:

copy /y %WINDIR%\System32\cmd.exe %WINDIR%\System32\utilman.exe
net user username password

YouTube

If it is an online account, you can enable built-in-admin and try to access files from there.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I think that I'll be good now.

Sent you a PM for another idea, just in case.

I already resolved the issue, thanks!