"Can I log into root during the boot up process by supplying my administrator user name and password? "
Yes. Your administrator user name is root. So login as root and give the root password.
"Are these two totaly different things?"
They are partially different. su root has a different PATH than root. This varies by distribution but on my machine neither user nor su root can run fdisk but root can.
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Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html
Steve Stites