First, try to use SystemRescueCD (
http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage
). This has a utility called NTPASS that allows for the recovery of local user account passwords (you can
change or delete a password, not really recover an existing one). See screenshot below.
Another method is to do an in-place install taking care to preserve files, but that may be problematic.
If all else failes, you will have to use DominicP suggestion. Either mount the disk via an external drive or use a Linux distribution like Knoppix or Ubuntu (live CD) to recover data.
There is an amazing pack of free network admin tools. click here to download it




