question -- how to access my laptop after family screwed up the sign-in [View all]

So I was away at hospital and recovery in skilled nursing facility for a month.

While away, my family tried repeatedly to access my laptop. I knew the password; but they had tinkered repeatedly trying to guess it.

And now the password doesn't work.

Now what? I am told that a computer expert can offload all the contents of the hard drive to something that can plug into USB port and be accessed differently.

Any thoughts?

P.S. I am on a different sub machine to write this.