Okay I will try that. I'm not worried about losing anything on the radio now. Do you know how I would go about that?
Do not just run a blind recover. You will lose your tuning values. I have a 3500e and have run this exact procedure on it for a codeplug password (as well as a 5550, 6350, and 7550e for other reasons).
This assumes you have a CPS subscription, the firmware you are intending to recover to (>= current), and Tuner.
1. Open Tuner, plug in the radio, and read the tuning values. Save that file to disk.
2. Open CPS and run a recover. It will take a few minutes and the radio will reboot a few times.
3. Open Tuner and open the file you saved earlier with the tuning values. Hit write and push the tuning values back onto the radio.
4. Clone/create your codeplug onto the radio.