Account access

I had created an Microsoft account in order to sign into Xbox live.  I have forgotten the password and when i try to reset the password or recover the account i get a response that the account does not exist.  However, the account must exist because I was still able to login to Xbox live on the Xbox console until recently.  Now the console is asking for the password (which it wasn't doing before) and as i mentioned, i do not know the password.  Also, i am unable to create a new account using the same email.  I then get a response that that email is unavailable.