BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) is the program used by the computer’s microprocessor to boot the computer system after power-on. It also manages the flow of data between your computer’s operating system (OS) and attached devices such as hard drives, video adapters, keyboards, mice, and printers.
Functionalities of BIOS in Computer:
- The motherboard’s BIOS chip is the collection of code that takes care of the low-level tasks that the CPU can’t do, such as caching of data and instructions, memory management, hardware control, etc.
- To access BIOS you need to press a key on your keyboard at start up to enter your PC’s setup.
- Password recovery options vary depending on what type of BIOS you have and some require a removable device such as a DVD or USB with specialized software.
- To reset the BIOS password and get back into your PC: reload default settings by pressing Delete before the power button at startup.
BIOS password recovery on Windows:
- Step 1: Turn off the PC and hold down the power button while connecting a keyboard to reset the BIOS password
- Step 2: Update your motherboard BIOS: http://www.microsoft.com/bios/default.mspx
- Step 3: Open notepad.exe and copy and paste the contents of your motherboard’s vendor provided BIOS update file (.ROM) into it. Save it as a .txt file, open Notepad, and click Open File;
- Step 4: Download the BIOS password recovery tool that best fits your computer model from the internet and run it.
BIOS Password Recovery On Linux:
- Configure a system account or password for accessing the computer and prevent users from logging on to the system without knowledge of the account or password.
- Try to press the CTRL+ALT+Delete keys together at startup, and then log in by using a username different from the one that you were using before you forgot your login password; if explorer.exe does not work after following these steps, follow the next step.
- Try to use Parted Magic CD to access your hard drive partitions: https://partedmagic.com/download
- Type cd /media/cdrom and hit Enter, and you will be redirected to the mounted file system of your CD drive. Type ls and hit Enter, if you can see the files, then you’re on the right track; if not, try again a few times.
- Run Parted Magic Live CD, go to File → Open Disk Image File; find the hard drive partition that you want to access, then right-click and select Apply Change.
Entering the Recovery Mode:
Boot, Recovery Button, F11, F12, ESC, or Del key. Note that on some laptops like Aspire One series, you have to press the Alt key + Print Screen to view the boot options. The display should now show you Acer Empowering Technology. Press Enter. After this step, your laptop will start loading WinPE and will then prompt for a username and a password. Use the username root and the password Acer to access the recovery menu. Select Recovery Option → Refresh/to restore BIOS settings → System Information → Select Recovery Options → Reset BIOS password. The laptop will now enter the BIOS settings menu.
Configuring With a New Password:
Entering this prompt will show you a list of options that you can set. You will be able to select one or more items for them to appear in the BIOS menu itself by clicking on their respective checkboxes. Accessing it at this point is quite possible, but it’s not recommended as there are chances that your laptop might not boot up again properly. Resetting BIOS password: Once the list of options is complete, select BIOS Update. Select Yes. When prompted, enter your new password (twice) and say yes to confirm. The new password will now be set.
NOTE: If you reset the BIOS password, but you don’t know how to change it back, you can still access the recovery menu by first turning the laptop off and then rapidly pressing the F11 key after booting up. This will bring you to a text-based menu where you will be able to select Boot Options → HP Compaq ACM Boot Options → Launch Recovery Manager → Enter. Here you can then choose an item from the list of options available. Here, you will be able to enter a new BIOS password as well.
Resetting BIOS Password if it is Corrupted:
If you enter the BIOS menu and find that it doesn’t show any options, it means that your BIOS Password has been corrupted. In this case, your only hope is to reset your laptop by entering another password first before rebooting into the BIOS menu and changing it back to “admin”. How do you do that? Simple! Boot up from a Live CD.