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I'm helping a friend with their Surface Pro 3 with Windows 10 installed. A fake "Microsoft Tech Support" person enabled SysKey Startup Password so that they get a password prompt when they try to log onto their computer.

I've found some older articles that suggest using programs to disable Startup Password. To do so, I have to copy the hives from the infected computer over to a temp work area on a different machine, run the utility on the files, and then copy them back to the problematic machine. For example, see this article: SOLUTION: “This is Microsoft Support” telephone scam – Computer ransom lockout

I have been able to boot the Surface using Ubuntu 14.10 on a USB drive. However, I can't mount the C:\ partition. Here is the info from fdisk:

/dev/sda4 1390592 489263103 487872512 232.7G Microsoft basic data

When I try to mount the partition, I get an error: "The device '/dev/sda4' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS".

Is there any way to mount to this drive within Linux? If so, how? Thanks.

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  • Did you try addendum A in that link you posted?
    – Moab
    Aug 5, 2016 at 21:57
  • I burned to a thumb drive but the thumb drive won't boot on the Surface Pro. I was able to boot the thumb drive from a laptop, however. I'm trying the section below the article which is to copy the files from the Surface Pro.
    – JustAspMe
    Aug 5, 2016 at 22:07
  • Refer to AskUbuntu - Can't mount NTFS drive.
    – wjandrea
    Sep 26, 2016 at 0:24
  • If that doesn't resolve the issue, please provide more details, especially the exact error message you get when trying to mount.
    – wjandrea
    Sep 26, 2016 at 0:29
  • What is the mount command you're using?
    – fixer1234
    Sep 26, 2016 at 4:08

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