Shoutbox

I'm one of the unlucky ppl who used the encryption 4 years ago and now have logs they can't read because of a forgotten password. I've been reading these forums thru and thru to see if there is any way to recover a lost password, but I take it there isn't. My computer was crashing over and over back then and was taken back to the store to get repaired every month, it seemed. When I finally got it back, I was told to install only essentials, because the prob seemed to be a program-related one, so Messenger Plus! was one of the programs I didn't dare to get back - hence my logs remained encrypted as they had been the previous time my comp went belly up, and as I quit using the program, I eventually forgot the pass, too.

I'll just have to keep racking my brain and trying to remember what pass I used.
Reason I'm posting is to ask if the encryption passwords have always had the minimum of 4 letters as it seems to have now? Or if, for example, at 2005 it could have been shorter? That would be at least some sort of a start. And was there a limit of how long it could be?
Also, I read somewhere about different logs having different passwords or something? I know I changed my pass a couple of times during the time I encrypted logs, but I don't remember having to type in different passes to read the old logs. As I remember, I always just used the newest one. Am I just remembering wrong?

The logs I'm trying to retrieve are the first messenger convos between myself and the guy I ended up marrying 2 years later from when the convos took place. It would mean a lot to me to remember that password, so thank you to anyone who'd take the time to read this and answer my question.