okay, forgot the passphrase for the encryption, now i cant get pass the unbunto start screen. Started this project for my little girls computer and had to leave town for job. now cant remember the passphrase, and cant get the recovery to work. Do i have to install new, and if so, how?? disk is locked and i need to get this up and running to learn how to use it. I have hit the shift key, started it in grub, advance options for unbunto, selected Unbunto, with Linux 3.13.0-45-generic (recovery mode), get to flashing commands and it stops...wait a about 20 seconds..[76.096156] random: nonblocking pool is initialized, and nothing more. screen dosnt change, and the recovery screen i seen on vids dosnt appear. any help would be helpful

If you forgot the passphrase, then you're done. You have no choice but to reinstall. As far as how you re-install...you install it the same way you did the first time. Put in the CD/DVD/USB stick, boot from it, and format the entire hard drive when you partition it, during the new installation.

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Okay, i get the need to install new, but if i cant unlock the encryption on my hard drive... i select in grub advanced options for unbuntu, select recovery mode, get enter pass word.

insert usb after setting bios to load from usb, get SYSLINUX 4.07 EDD 2013-07-25 Copyright (C) 1994-2013 H. Peter Anvin et al.... and nothing
So being a noobie to linux, seems i cant get around the harddrive being locked. I cant seem to load a new set up, unless im missing something, and cant seem to re partition, erase, or format hard drive to start anew. I new this was not going to be easy as windows, but dam, wasnt expecting the thing to lock me out. Not blaming program, i forgot password, but should have some way to get to operating system from scratch i would think, or am i just windows spoiled?? help me out if you can. I enjoyed the linux when i was able to log on, and i think its better than windows. Just have to get this bump in the road solved.

I did help you, but you didn't read what I told you.

Again, boot from the installation media, as you did the first time. You don't do ANYTHING with grub or anything else. The installation program loads, and will show you the hard drive. Delete the partitions, add new ones, and format the drive. Done. Just like you would with Windows, if it even had the ability to do what Linux does.

If you don't format the partitions, it won't erase what's on the drive. If you don't erase what's on the drive, it'll ask you for a password.

if you used full drive encryption
you are out of luck
all the files are inaccessible
This IS why you used the drive encryption in the first place

or
remember the pass phrase

now some drives use HARDWARE!!! encryption
if that is the case
by a new drive ,or use the manufacture tools to reset it and reformat ( you will still NOT get the files off it -just reformat)

or
remember the pass phrase

I did use a usb stick to install it onto the computer, used the same one the next two times and it did not load from it but brought me to the unbuntu password part, i had aready installed the encryption on it the first time i loaded the system, changed it from windows 7, and partitioned it to unbuntu, so no more windows. like i said i the past threads, because of encryption cant seem to load anything else, and if its to restart and do as the first time, showing hard drive and asking to partition for unbuntu distro, i would not be asking for help. seems i have not made it clear as to what ive done, and sorry if i miss understood, but the first time i used usb, and it did not work after that first install, password issue as before. guess i locked out he hard drive, lmao. didnt realize i put that kind of encryption on it, would have taking more time to write down the password in a few different places. But thanks for the help, at least i know what not to do next time. now to take the notebook apart and install new hard drive.

There is no way to 'lock out' a hard drive.

Again, partitioning is NOT THE SAME THING as formatting. If you did an installation from the USB stick, it will come up, ask you questions, etc. It will take you to a place where you can partition/format your hard drive. THAT is where you will DELETE what is there, and create NEW partitions, and format the drive, thereby erasing what's on it, encrypted or not. If you're confused about how to do this from the Ubuntu installation program, then get the Gparted image, and use it to erase your drive first, then re-run Ubuntu installation:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PartitioningSchemes
http://gparted.org/

And Ubuntu has a section where you load things with Grub during installation. If you're doing that, don't. That's where you're getting stuck.

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I think both installation programs i had were bad. Went to an ubuntu gnome 15 for the latest install, and that one actually loaded like it did the first time and as you said it should. I formatted the usb with the other distro on it and have had two acer aspire ones changed to the ubuntu gnome 15 distro. I apologize if it seemed i was not reading what you wrote, but my install usb program or the distro i had was not running like it should have. Thank you for helping out, I'm sure i"ll be on here a lot to find out more, and remember, still a newbie, didn't think of the program being faulty.

...and most probably it wasn't, but the error occured somewhere on the way between downloading the iso and "burning" it to the usb...

but glad you got it solved.