I autoplayed the CD that had ubuntu 8.04 desktop edition on it. So I first set up the boot menu so that it would boot from a CD (3rd option I think).
Then I rebooted the computer, and Ubuntu starts up. I select "try ubuntu without installing first", so I wait a while and then it opens up. I try ubuntu a little and then there's that install file on the desktop. I click on it and everything goes fine until I get to here:

http://apcmag.com/images/apcapc/howt...ges/ubuntu.jpg

I try the first option first, but it didn't get past 0%. So I closed it and then tried the second option. This one worked, but it was at 0% on the installing ubuntu window, so then I closed it. I think that was the mistake.

But anyway, I tried to install ubuntu a third time (after 2 failed attempts at the partitioning part aka "preparing disk space"). This time, the install window wouldn't even come up, so I shut it down. And then when I try to reboot the computer, it can't boot up from the cd, but it won't boot up with vista either. Then it says "disk 0 seek failure".

And now I can't use my computer at all because no OS will boot up. Ubuntu doesn't work and Vista won't work either. Luckily I have a second computer, but I did have some very important files (which unfortunately i didnt backup). So I need to know:

Are those files gone.. forever?
How can I get Vista to work again?
If I can't use Vista anymore, is it still possible to get those files?
Oh and anything that you want to add to this that can help me get my other computer back and working again would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Use your vista installation CD and choose option repair or recovery.

When you set up the boot menu are your talking about changing boot priority in the BIOS? Do you have the disk in the drive when you try to boot vista?

Did you download the Ubuntu CD? If so, could be a bad download or bad burn on your CDWriter.

There should be a way to get the files off of your computer. First, take the hard drive our of your now dead machine and put it in your working machine. But before you do this, download ubcd from www.ultimatebootcd.com/ and burn it to cd. Then, boot the ubcd and select filesystem tools, and chhose a utility that can modify partitions. After you boot the tool, select the hard drive that has an ext3 filesystem, and delete it. Next, remove the boot flag from the ntfs partition on the same drive. Write these changes to disk, and reboot your computer. Once windows detects the drive, try to access it. You files should be there, if the partitioner dis not try to delete the vista partition. If it was on 0%, then you are probably just fine.

Good luck,
tekgek

I think your files should be fine.... You could also try another live linux distro, mount your vista partition and backup your files.

Everything you have done was a mistake.Next time know what you're doing before you're doing it.Stoping installation at any point is not good thing to do.
Resizing a partition takes some time,so you should have wait.A lot of things can be going on with your pc now,anyway you should enter your BIOS and change everything that doesn't look right and set it to boot from what you want it to boot from first.
-disk 0 seek failure means that BIOS can't find your hard drive.
All your data should be on the disk,so rearange your BIOS settings and try to boot from Ubuntu cd again.If installer starts and if you have free disk space I recommend installing Ubuntu on the separate partition,for that option choose manual installation.
Ask for help before problems start to happen if you don't understand something.

1. I have no Vista installation CD. Vista came already setup with the computer (Dell), so I have no installation CD.

2. I'm talking about the menu that comes up when I press F2 (which is setup) and the boot menu (F12). I already tried resetting the BIOS settings in the F2 setup window (blue screen), but it doesn't change anything. I already tried changing several options in the F2 setup window, but still I get the same results. And yes I did have the disk in the drive when I booted the computer. At first it worked, but after I shut it down after the unsuccessful installation, it didn't work anymore. But it booted fine before.


3. I don't know if the Ubuntu download was a bad download or not. It worked on my computer, but does that mean that it could have still been a bad download? Because most things on Ubuntu did work.


Seriously though, I really need to know if my files can be recovered along with Vista. I don't really care if Ubuntu doesn't work b/c I'll just get another CD then.

Oh and I have no working OS on my vista computer anymore. Ubuntu doesn't work and Vista doesn't work. But if I put in say a Windows XP disk or a disk that contains another OS, will it boot up that OS?

As I said,your only way out of this mess is from BIOS.Go to the web site of your BIOS manufacturer and read the manuals.You need to change were BIOS looks for your hard or cd drive.

You can boot from any "live CD" Linux version and look to see if the Vista files are still there.

When computers come without OS installation media, I believe that the disk is available. After all, you did pay for the OS as part of your purchase.

I cannot immediately tell if you are able to boot from a CD. If not, fix this first. While you are going through the steps, be sure not to do anything that would cause a write to the hard drive. (Booting from CD should be pretty safe.)

Finally, have faith---this is probably fixable.

OP,you should faitfully follow these words written by our guru!

I had some issues like that, and first I used a real XP CD to use the recovery console to run fixmbr, (which only fixes the boot code part of the master boot record,then the partition table needs fixing. For this I used the System Rescue CD and the tool called; Test Disk, and here is the site; http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page , so you may need a techy friend and a few handy CDs, good luck.

Thanks for the help guys. Anyway I do have some important files on there. I believe that the .iso file that I downloaded was corrupted, meaning as in the CD did not have enough memory to hold the file. It can hold 700mb but when I looked at the CD before in windows, it was over 700mb in size. So I'm not going to bother burning another CD anymore; I'll just request a free one. (By the way when I give out my phone number is it needed to confirm my request? Or are they going to use it to send me spam? Just wondering).


What my dad is planning to do is download another copy of Vista to the CD - he told me that it was legal. So I'm not going to reinstall Ubuntu until later; Vista will be recovered first.

But when he gets the Vista OS CD, how can I make sure that the files will not be deleted. If he reinstalls the OS will the files be deleted? Or is there another way such as using the system recover/fix in the CD (if there even is any) to try and recover Vista and the files?

Hi Ntvu,

Before you do anything to try and recover Vista I would do what has been sugested a few times in this post and boot of a linux boot CD (the one you have should be fine as it did, after all, boot). Then check you can actually see your files on the Vista partition. If you can, use a USB stick to copy all the files that are important so that you are sure to have them in a safe place.

I would seriously do this or you could lose all your files. Trust me, it never fails to happen.

-eco

I've made this when it happened to me. It did work