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Update to my update: posts #18 and #42 above. . .
Linux was erased from one machine, not both. And the problem may have been my fault, or, more specifically, the fault of the Ubuntu side-by-side installation with Windows. Here's what i think happened:
I had installed Mepis, with which i am most familiar, onto first one, and then another computer at my favorite cyber cafe here in Jinotega, Nicaragua, after carefully defragmenting and then resizing the Windows HPFS partition to allocate space for my Linux ext3 and swap partitions. All was fine at that point. But i wanted to give the local folks a chance, too, so i looked for a distro with better Spanish support, and settled upon Ubuntu 12. Booted the 2nd machine to the Ubuntu cd and proceeded to install onto the ext3 partition already there, overlaying Mepis with Ubuntu. When the Ubuntu installation dialogue prompted me to choose between installation options, i naturally clicked on the option to install side-by-side with Windows. The next screen showed me the proposed partition sizes, and mentioned two other 'hidden' partitions (!?!) Realizing that Ubuntu was ignoring the already existing ext3 and swap partitions and was about to resize the Windows partition, i clicked on the 'Go back' button. To my great horror, Ubuntu ignored my request to back up one step, and started repartitioning and installing itself onto space that had been part of Windows. All attempts to abort the installation failed; Ubuntu was saying, "to hell with it, we're going in!" To my relief and surprise, the result seemed to be fine. Windows booted, as did both Ubuntu and Mepis. But aparrently, some Windows font files got tromped on, and, to solve the font conflict, everything i had done was undone and the whole hard drive given over again to Microsoft.
These are the kinds of things that make Linux 'evangelization' difficult. I will now be content (and grateful) that i am still allowed to have my own Linux space here at the cyber cafe on one computer. No more evangelizing for awhile, if ever.
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