I deleted my private folder how do I restore it without losing everything?

I restored my system through time capsule and everything was fine. I was browsing my hard drive labeled "Macintosh HD" a short time ago and noticed a folder called "private".
This is a folder I have never seen before, and foolishly I just deleted it. It is still sitting in my recycle bin, but when I click "put back" or try and copy and paste it back into its original spot it prompts for my administrator password. For some reason it is not accepting my administrator password, I don't know why it isn't, but it isn't.
I have since read that it is very bad to delete the "private" folder however I really can't afford right now to reinstall another time capsule backup and lose more downtime.
How can I replace my private folder? I have a Snow Leopard install disk on hand, and the computer is still running. If I restart my computer without fixing anything it's going to probably not start up because I trashed this important folder. Is there a way I can re-copy this folder from my Snow Leopard install disk or from my time capsule backup?
And for some reason now Terminal is not working, it must be, because the private folder has been deleted..
NEED HELP!

yes, it's very bad to touch this folder and the reason your admin password is not working is because this folder contains some important files governing how an admin password can be used. you can put it back by booting from the SL install DVD and doing it from there using terminal.
insert the install DVd, reboot and hold "c" at the chime. this will boot you into SL installer. once there start terminal from Utilities menu and enter the following command
cp -rf /Volumes/"drive name"/Users/username/.Trash/private /Volumes/"drive name"
put the name of your main hard drive in two places in that command. KEEP the quotes. also put the short name of your user instead of username in the command. It's VERY important to enter the command correctly. mind the spaces in the command.
to verify that the command worked run
ls -la /Volumes/"drive name"/private
after it's done. it should list the contents of the copied folder.

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