How do I get my administrator password?

[c. dodson]

My system crashed with a corrupt config\system file so I
restored the registry. Now I get an error from lsass.exe -
"When trying to update a password, the return status
indicates that the value provided as the current password
is not correct".

I tried going into the recovery console from boot disks
but it keeps asking me for an administrator password - it
didn't do this before the restore.

I don't know the password but I need to get to the command
prompt to get some files before I do the recovery. How do
I get my administrator password?

thanks,
c. dodson