Running Bitcoin Core QT 5.5.0 and am having an issue with the wallet encryption password... am I screwed or is there anything that can be done.

Running Bitcoin Core QT 5.5.0 and am having an issue with the wallet encryption password.Recently had a hard drive failure and had to reinstall the OS and Bitcoin Core software. I have tried restoring from two different .dat files (created at different times) and the restore works (showing the correct amount of bitcoins in the wallet) however when I recently tried to use them to pay for a video game the wallet encryption password keeps telling me it is incorrect.Naturally I have cycled though all my known passwords to no avail so I don't know if maybe I fat fingered the password originally or just fucking forgot it.The strange part is that of the two .dat files I have, one is NOT encrypted (ie was obviously created prior to encrypting the wallet and can be opened in notepad without issue.)The second one WILL open in notepad when I put in a password - which I assumed was the encryption password that I used when I encrypted the wallet in the first place...but again ... when recovering to the new Bitcoin Core software it keeps telling me the password for un-encryption is incorrect.I have tried recovering on two separate machines with both of the two different .dat files and the results are the same.Am I screwed, or is there anything that can be done?Note: There are only 3 bitcoins in total in wallet, but still would like to be able to spend them... Any help would be appreciated. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1Jm86wB