breaking into a Mac?

[cellio]

Dear brain trust,

My father had a laptop, an old MacBook. My mother would like to know what's on it. It's password-protected. I've been unable to guess the password, even knowing some of his other passwords and some patterns he used.

I have the passwords to his two desktop computers (iMacs), but also can't get in via network share (access denied). I have his cell phone, which should let me get into his iCloud account (that's the second factor). I have the impression that none of that will help.

Is there any way I can override the laptop's password and get in anyway? Or connect an external drive and make a copy somehow? I'm willing to take the laptop and a copy of the death certificate to an Apple store, except that I don't know if it's technically possible to get in (without damaging the contents, which is the whole point of the operation). I mean, we'd all like security to actually be secure, so this shouldn't be easy, but is there something between "easy" and "impossible" that I can try?

The laptop is at my mom's house, so I can't test things immediately, but I'm looking for any clues that could help on my next visit.

Comments

[cellio]

Thank you. I suspect he didn't have FileVault turned on -- at least I saw no signs of it on the iMac, and since he didn't take the laptop out and about, he probably didn't have more security on it than on his main machine. (It'd be different if he thought there was a theft risk.) There are three Macs in his house (that laptop, his iMac, and an older iMac that is still on his desk), so connecting the laptop to another Mac seems easy. I'll take a network cable with me on my next visit.

fauxklore's link suggests I might be able to use his iCloud credentials to reset the password, so that's the first thing to try. Deploying a second Mac is plan B. Thanks again!

Edit: oh, a Thuderbolt cable, not Ethernet. Hmm, that's trickier, but he also has a lot of hardware and cables and stuff on his desk...