locked when woke up, wrong passcode...how to unlock?

[FlowingAway]

I have a friend who, according to him, took out his battery, put it back in and fired up his TP2. When greeted with his numerical password screen, his password no longer works. So now he cannot get back into his phone. Of course I can flash it for him, but I'd need to backup his contacts and messages first. Is there any way to get past the unlock screen without flashing it or hard resetting the device? Or at least how to backup his contacts before doing so?