Administer Password issues.

I want to recover several folders that were protected
under an admin password in a non-functioning copy of XP.
( documents and settings)

When trying to use the XP Home recovery panel the
program asks for the admin password. I enter the last
(only) know password and it is refused. Is there a
chance that this password file has gotten corrupted as I
can't start XP from the original installation. -It keeps
booting back to the BIOS startup.

I can start it from a parallel (different directory)
install of XP, but that does not give me access to
several folders in the original documents and settings
folder. When I try to open several directories (that
were password protected under the old Administer password
in the old XP installation) a message saying that the
folders are write protected pops up.

Is there any way to reset the password on this drive or
access these folders?

Thanks in advance