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For future reference, Yes the is a way to crack your windows passwords using knoppix. Too much to explain here, go to www.thebroken.org and watch the videos, they will explain in detail how to crack an lmhash.
Oops, sorry for the rotundant info. I only saw the first page. my bad.
I don't think you can crack the password file. All the programs out there basically tell you that the sam files are not breakable yet. So if you are likely to reinstall windows you may try this as a last resort. You could back up your files using linux, then remove the password files that windows uses. Then boot to windows and see if it repairs the file for you on boot up. Windows does this with other files that get removed. Of course the flip side is that it may never be usable again and you still have to reinstall the OS. So...You got nothing to lose.
@stake works great
This URL will give you the tool to change (not recover) your XP password.
Good luck and be sure to read the fine print. You won't be able to recover any encrypted files unless you can remember the original PW.
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/