There is a lot here to explain, so I will try to answer it in a way that is useful to you.
(1) .htaccess is a file that sits in your web server directory. It supplies configuration options to the web server, including, among other things, a username and password for access to that directory.
(2) There is no way to look up the password for an existing .htaccess user. This is because the passwords are encrypted using one-way encryption.
(3) You can, however, *reset* the password using some command-line tools. Well, the tool "htpasswd"
(4) There is really not enough detail in your question to answer your question.
Questions to you:
(1) What do you mean by "I need to have them display in my cgi-bin"? This is a nonsensical statement to me.
(2) What are you trying to achieve? Post some images to a web page? Set up a web site?
(3) What is this "CD with all the files"? A Website that was created for you by someone else?
(4) What is the MySQL stuff? What relevancy does it have to what you are trying to achieve?
My finding is that often, novice computer users trying to set up a website will ask the wrong questions or try to do stuff in a more complicate way than is required. Please state in clear English description exatly what you are trying to do and you can be answered more appropriately.
later...