Well, I have gotten myself in quite a bind. My Windows partition crashed earlier tonight when I tried installing the new SB Live! drivers available on Creative Asia's website. I now have corrupted system files, and I can't even boot in safe mode. Windows XP doesn't crash often, but when it does, it does it with enough power to blow a hole in the side of your computer. I cannot restore my ghost images or reinstall the OS at the moment as my discs are over at a friends house, from when her hard drive failed, and I was trying to get it back up and running. I will try to get them back off of her after the weekend. Until then, I am stuck with plan B.
My Linux Mandrake partition mainly goes unused, as I am horrible at maintaining it. I basically installed it a while back, got my favorite browser running on it, attempted to install a media player, got bored, wanted to play some America's Army, and went back to Windows. I have since then forgotten my root password. It's totally unlike me, as I only have a limited number of passwords I actually use. I have no idea why none of them work now, which is why I am here begging for help on how I can possibly get my password back.
I have thought of 2 solutions.
1) Re-install Linux (Takes a while, and I am kind of pressed for time this weekend as it is. Nevertheless, it is no doubt what I will be doing.)
2) Write a shell script to recover the password by brute force. (I am lousy at writing shell scripts, and I am sure it would take all day to run it anyway. Easier just to re-install).
If anyone knows any tricks to recover it, I would be most grateful. I am going to bed about now though. This day has gone on far too long as it is.
PS: If any moderators think this is illegal, or my reasons are untrue, feel free to delete this topic. I AM telling the truth though, sad as it may seem, and I don't THINK I am asking for anything illegal. (But If I am, again, feel free to make this vanish.)