Recovering data from a system disk where the password has been forgotten is not a big problem if you have the right tools. You could get at the data with the Knoppix bootable Linux CD. There's another alternative that's also Linux based. The Trinity Rescue Kit 3.0 is billed as "CPR for your computer."

From their what's new in this version list:

• more hardware support: kernel 2.6.14.3 with most default options left on, so all important hardware like disc controllers and network cards are supported, even SATA disks, USB storage and gigabit ethernet. Also patched with lufs (for ntfs support) and bootsplash (background graphics)
• better network capability: besides all common network client tools, you can also run a secure shell server for remote access or TRK to TRK file copies
• run completely from memory: provided you have at least 192Mb of ram, you can run TRK from memory and eject the CD once it has booted, giving you the ability to mount other CDs
• vesa framebuffer support: TRK now has limited graphical support thanks to kernel builtin framebuffer support.
• qtparted: the famous PQMagic clone. Partition editing never been this easy thanks to the graphical interface this tool uses (via framebuffer)
• configure your LAN to be "TRK 3 compliant": you can change the way a TRK behaves by adding an otherwise unused parameter to your DHCP server to point to a webserver where you keep specific configuration data for your TRK such as proxy settings or complete scripts with which you can do anything you want
• run scripts from a local computer by searching for /.trk/trklocal.conf
• full NTFS write support thanks to the captive ntfs project.
• more NTFS write support with the NTFS FUSE driver.
• Secure Shell server: let a user boot from TRK, enter a new password for root and connect to TRK remotely

Link found on the RTFM Education Blog.