0

Hey so I tried upgrading to the new 12.04 version. When I tried to reboot it up though, it went to the purple screen and hung there. I wanted to get my important documents off of my old Ubuntu, so I switched over to Windows and redownloaded the jump drive boot up. Once in the trial version I cannot find my files, only files that are on my Windows section. Is there any way to recover the files that were on my old Ubuntu, its finals week and I really need a couple of them, and starting to freak out a bit that I will have to start all over on two semester long projects. Any help I would appreciate, and so would my sleeping schedule. Thanks so much.

Mike
  • 1

2 Answers2

0

Trying running ubuntu off a disk or USB in its Live Session. You can go into your hard drive and fetch files that way. Windows won't be able to understand some hard drive formats, especially from linux.

Meow me
  • 1
  • I am currently in the live session. I went and looked all throughout the hard drive and the only files I could find are empty folders like Documents, Downloads... that I guess where created for the live session, and all of my files from the Windows side. None of my files from my old, now non-bootable Ubuntu are there. – Mike Apr 30 '12 at 05:55
0

Use a live / recovery disk and use it to copy the data to your Windows accessible disk (Ubuntu's LiveCD should be able to read/write NTFS easily). If you want to get it off the machine entirely, use the Cloud or USB disk.

It is possible that your disks are in lvm - and in the liveCD you'll need to install install lvm2. If your /home partition is on a separate physical partition from the / (root) partition, you may be able to do a fresh re-install.

Edit: Noting from OP's comment; if this is installed via Wubi, you can get to them via 3rd party software.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#How_can_I_access_the_Wubi_files_from_Windows.3F

papashou
  • 2,440
  • 1
  • 14
  • 9
  • I am currently using a live usb boot of Ubuntu. Once in the trial version I looked for my files for previous Ubuntu but couldnt find them. I found my files that are currently on Windows though. I installed lvm2, but I do not know where to go from there. Also I thought when I first installed Ubuntu a year ago or so that I made a separate partition for Ubuntu but when I look in GParted it only shows 3 sections of the hard drive. The first is 39.19 MiB of DellUtility, Dell laptop, the second is 14 GiB Recovery and the third is OS. I thought there would be a section for Windows and one for Ubuntu. – Mike Apr 30 '12 at 05:48
  • If there is any other information I can provide that could help you help me let me know I would really like to be able to find all of those files so I can just do a clean re-install and not worry about losing them forever. Thanks so much. – Mike Apr 30 '12 at 05:49
  • Does the output of fdisk -l|egrep '^Disk /dev' show you any hints? LVM devices are usually indicated by a /dev/mapper prefix while physical disks would be /dev/sdX (e.g. /dev/sda) and partitions of those disks would be /dev/sdX# (e.g. /dev/sda1) – papashou Apr 30 '12 at 16:02
  • Here is what I got in terminal when I did that command: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l|egrep '^Disk /dev' Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes Disk /dev/sdb: 4004 MB, 4004511744 bytes ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ – Mike Apr 30 '12 at 16:53
  • This leads me to believe that when I first installed Ubuntu that I did not create a separate partition for it. I first installed years ago, back then I did not know much about all of this so I do not remember to well what all I did. But if this is the case shouldn't the memory from my unbootable Ubuntu be located somewhere on the /dev/sda? Thanks for all the help. – Mike Apr 30 '12 at 16:56
  • if you've installed it via Wubi, then you should be able to mount your wubi file from within Windows using 3rd party software. – papashou Apr 30 '12 at 20:31