This paper considers the problems of the simultaneous estimation of the system states and the unknown inputs for linear systems when the so-called observer matching condition is not satisfied. An auxiliary output vector is introduced so that the observer matching condition is satisfied with respect to it. A high-order sliding mode observer is considered to get the exact estimates of both the auxiliary outputs and their derivatives in a finite time based on the system measured outputs. After this, a reduced-order observer is constructed by using the estimated auxiliary outputs as the new system outputs. The reduced-order observer is able to asymptotically estimate the system states without suffering the influence of the unknown inputs. A kind of unknown input reconstruction method based on both the state and the auxiliary output derivative estimates is developed. Finally, a numerical simulation example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.