Ultimate Edition Forum

i have just come back from work and wanted to do some study. i started my machine but the OS wont load?? funny this since i worked on it this afternoon before i went to work. the initial display is there , looks like grub is there but when the programs.. etc load i just get a black screen with nothing else to look at. i have started to back data etc up and wanted to continue this. im running the live disk now and want to know if there is any way i can repair what has gone astray. good thing about live dvds however i can not see my ubuntu partition just my MS partition can be accessed from the live disk. any ideas?

thanks

witblits1970,
You can boot with the Live DVD, then mount the existing Ultimate Edition or Ubuntu partition so you may access it. To do this you will need to create a "mount point" in either /mnt or the /media directory from a Terminal screen, with this command:

Code: Select all

mkdir /media/ue-root

OR

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/ue-root

- NOTE: You may call the directory whatever you wish, I just used "ue-root" as an example, I'd probably use something like "ue-home" for my /home directory of Ultimate Edition (or whatever OS you're trying to recover or backup). I would assume that if you cannot repair the current installation that you want at least to get everything from your /home directory/partition saved to someplace safe and accessible to Ultimate Edition when it is re-installed or repaired.
You will have to determine the actual Device name for the disk/partitions of your current Ultimate Edition install - I usually use System>Administration>GParted to find this information. It should be in the form of something like this: sda1 for the root partition and possibly sda2 for the home partition - if it is on the 1st drive in your system, or sdb2 if on the 2nd drive in your system, etc.... Once you have this information, and have created a directory to serve as the "mount point", then you can mount the partition with the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/ue-home

(or whatever you called the directory you created for this purpose).
This will mount the partition so you may cd to the directory/mount-point and manipulate the files from there. You might want to just copy the entire partition or directory structure to another drive which you can access, such as the MS disk you referred to in your post. You may also have to mount the MS drive if it is not already mounted, or if you can already "see" that MS drive, and have permissions to Write to it, just use your GUI File Browser to copy and paste the directory of your Ultimate Edition installation that you mounted to a new directory on the MS drive.
This is not an uncommon task, and this a good procedure to know how to accomplish. As Linux does not automatically Mount drives it does not "know about", this is often the method for accessing drives or partitions for recovery purposes.
Please let us know if this info was helpful and if you need further assistance or guidance.

Might just be checking the disk.Let it go for a bit of time,and see if it allows you into x.


Cell

thanks guys much appreciated. texasmike i tried what you said but no joy. all i get is system reserved and nothing else. i think it is going to be a new install. luckily i have a friend who has the same SW i have so ill just get it off him so i can start again. just wished 2.6 ws out so i can start from there instead of going from 2.5 then upgrading to 2.6 in a couple of weeks time but hey!

Blackwolf is correct about the Disk check scenario. It can take quite a bit of time, depending on the size of the disk or partition. You might want to just leave it for a couple of hours to allow the time for the disk check to finish. I sort of forgot 'bout this one, generally I figure that out in a couple of minutes by observing my hard drive activity light - if it is on "steady" or constantly flashing, I just go away for a time and usually it is finished after an hour or so.
If, however your drive activity light stops after the system has been powered on for a short time, and is still not booting, you may have other issues.
Let us know if the activity light is on or not after about 5 minutes after power on. If not, you still may be able to get all your data from you home partition. I can give you some more detailed steps to follow to try to get the partition mounted and copied to someplace safe and accessible.
And, hang in there, I'm sure the release of Ultimate Edition 2.6 is "just around the corner", and you're gonna love it! BTW, could you posat some system specs, or better yet, create a signature file containing your system specs, and it will be included on all your posts. Just go to User Control Panel at the top of any forum page, click on the Profile tab, and the Edit Signature. This way, when the answer to your questions may involve different information or instructions depending on installed hardware, we will be more able to give you accurate info.

Hello witblits1970 Try to boot in to repair mode at your grub screen,if your disk is being force checked you will see at the bottom "system has been mounted XX-number of times ,system is being force checked" with a scrolling cursor at the bottom, when this action is finished, press enter and then click, resume normal boot !