Locked out of the system

I installed mandrake 8.3 (really love them) and after.....playing around with the settings I >>>accidentally<<< (yea right ) set the security level to paranoid. I couldn't change it back so I restarted hoping for a brighter day. I couldn't log in neither as root nor as a regular user. It's like I locked myself out of my house lol. Can anyone help me out?

PS.
Time to answer is max 2.5 hours. After that I'm reinstalling linux (have to do some partiotioning since I don't like the way they are scattered around)

I'd say to reformat, and reinstall. If you don't like the partitions, and you're locked out, it can't hurt to reinstall to get it the way you like it.

OK prob solved . Re-installed + partioned