I was doing some maintenance on my laptop this week, and one of my tools suggested creating a Password Reset Disk.  I did not know the feature even existed.  Anyway, it seems like a good idea.  It is simple to do, and you can use multiple types of media (SD Disk, Thumb Drive, CD, etc.) to store the file that is created: userkey.psw.  Here are a few links that show you how to create and use the Password Reset Disk.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930381

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/102005-reset-user-account-password.html  (See Method Four)

John