Forgotten password for HDD

I have two pc's running in the beta channel, but only use one of them. Since getting my Ryzen 5700G on a B450 motherboard with 32Gb of ram, I have neglected the other with the Athlon 3000G for at least 18 months. The other day, I felt guilty for not switching it on and when I did switch on, got a screen for putting in a password for unlocking the HDD, a 500Gb WD 750 Black NVME sitting in a PCIexpress x 16 in the motherboard. The HDD was transfered to a USB-C enclosure but although the pc gave a beep when I plugged it in, it is invisable to Windows. Crystal Disk Info sees the drive correctly and so does my free copy of Mini tool Partition Wizard. The free MTPW is not able to do much with the HDD.
I would like to reload a copy of W11 pro hopefully using the same HDD, but if that is not possible, I do have a 256Gb Patriot spare.
Any ideas about getting the locked HDD running would be appreciated, there is no data on it that I need to retain.
I have looked through my paperwork in the hope of finding a clue to the password, but to no avail.

Have you tried installing Windows 11 by deleting the partitions?

Bitlocker key should be stored in your MS account. However as Freebooter suggested, you can delete all partitions and clean install without key..

Unfortunately its not bitlocker, I had so much bother with that a while back that I stopped using it. Mini tool says its a bad disc and Crystal Disk Info only shows it as good.
I think I will put the 256Gb in the pc and get an iso of W11 pro, I don't think there will be any problems activating it. I must see if there is a usable 2.5 SATA box to put the drive in for testing rather than the USB enclosure that I'm using at the moment.
I got an ISO of W11 pro from the Microsoft website, it only took a few minutes and I'm only on about 137 Mbits. Tomorrow I will put it on some media, probably a double sided DVD.

Yes, if the other tools see the drive then it is almost certainly a driver issue. Jut need to load the correct driver for your system to see it.

One of my friends thinks he might be able to get it running using Linux. I have fitted the 256Gb Patriot into the M2 slot in the motherboard and will do a clean install tomorrow using the DVD that I have burned.

I have tried a new load of Windows 11 PRO from the official Microsoft website and after two attempts no go. "This PC doesn't currently meet Windows 11 system requirements". I will be starting a new thread elswhere in the forum to address this. The pc is the Athlon 3000G one that is in my computers.

Use Rufus to bypass the picky requirements. It will take the ISO you have and use it to make a bootable USB that will install it OK.



Just pick the options you need. Full instructions on the Rufus site.

I have had a result, pretty much accidentally. The M2 500Gb drive that I couldn't access was given up by Mini Tool Partition Wizard as a bad job labeled "bad disk". As other hdds could be "secure erased" in the BIOS, I refitted it to try erasing it that way. Even after all the messing about it had suffered, the password request came back up, so I tried some different passwords. After about a dozen attempts, and having to restart every three goes, I got lucky and Windows started normally as if nothing had happened. The OS was still on 22H2 and has been successfully brought up to 24H2 with no problems.
I had fitted a Ryzen 5600G in place of the Athlon 3000G with no results and after the pc was back up and running swopped them back, also with no apparent bad affects. The Ryzen can go back into its own pc.

In Windows there is no East or West. But things can definitely get WEIRD sometimes.
This was one of those times. My condolences, and glad you found an exit strategy.
--Ed--