.Update. This last week I worked up a copy of passwd. I was able to change the password for the admin account. It was a matter of making sure I wasn't in secure boot mode. Further, I realized locksmith didn't fail. It was the fact I was still in safe boot mode. And when in safe boot mode, all admin accounts are locked or locked via the google account's service. Strange thing is that the guest account isn't protected. User accounts are now assigned to an E-mail account since Windblows 8 or so. I'm not sure if this needs to be a Google I'd or not. And if this is a known/unknown vulnerability or not. Either way, apparently it has to be accessed in order to reset the password for the account locally or boctaoe.
I am glad to say this issue is now resolved. Thank you Lord Kamos, Digip, & Dave-ee Jones for your assistance.
I'll probably wipe the drives later. I'd really like to use the default software & OS that came with the box since it is a ROG OEM setup. But there are 7 partitions:
-two recovery (450 MB & 12 GB)
-c = 94GB Boot
-EFI = 100 MB
-d = 130 GB
-e = 465.76 GB
-f = 465.76 GB
I've had to deal with raid systems (other than in lab scenarios), & it almost looks like a dual boot Linux platform install. I've been out of the computer field for over 8 years, so I was working on 2003 servers. I'm not sure how to remove raid configuration, keep the recovery partition(s) drives. This is going to be a personal gaming computer. I guess I could try ubcd and remove c, d, e, & f, then reimage the entire the combined cdef partitions. That should work. I think.
BBWolfie