[Bradford] newbie with major problem using iux Mint 17.3

[Kevin Morris]

Hello all

Having been sick and tired of Windows and refused to update from Windows 
XP, in 2016 I moved to Mint 17.3, installing it on a new machine an HP 
Probook 450 G2 laptop.

I have enjoyed the experience, but being old-68 next birthday, I found 
the learning curve too steep. Apart from driver updates from time to 
time, I didn't do much by way of maintenence. On Christmas day I had a 
catastrophic failure- totally my own fault- and now I am unable to use 
my machine.

It tries to boot but never completes the sequence. Recovery mode doesn't 
actually move the boot further along. ANother foolish probem is that I 
have lost my bios password. I have tried several times shorting pins on 
what I hope was the correct CMos chip but to no avail. I am hoping that 
it might be possible to recover the program because as of now, it is 
proving impossibe for me to recover important  and irreplaceable data 
because I can no longer boot up the machine with recovery software.

I am hoping that you guys might be abe to help me get out of this 
disastrous situation. Woud it be possible for me to bring my machine 
when you next meet? I have downloaded an ISO copy of Mint 17.3 but I 
can't make head or tail of the instructions regarding using the 
checksums in order to verify the download.

Best wishes,

Kevin Morris