Hi Everyone I'm New Here!!! Geetings From ((Canada))

[theunseenones]

Hi everyone im new here i was shown the way here from members on calispora.org they said you might be able to help me oohhh boy i did it good this time
see my problem is i listened to a friend and installed linux mint 13 maya and wow way to advanced for me now the removal of maya is so hard i screwed myself big time, don't know how to fix it... See i wanted it along side of windows see, he told me no-no it's ok you can install windows after mint, dumb me i said sure wellll that was a huge mistake i lost 2tb of movies games docs music along with all my art 5 years worth plz anyone i feel so small over this big-time...
Now all i see is a blank linux desktop cant even shut down no taskbar the only command i have is the keyboard shortcut for terminal thats it.. What should i do throw out this tb hdd and install another one and find a version that is for newbies??? im lost...

[xenopeek]

I'd normally welcome you the Linux Mint forums with a smile, but I can imagine you're not smiling much now. Sounds like you got some pretty bad advice...

If you are totally new to Linux we'd normally recommend you install Linux Mint from inside Windows, or we'd help you do the installation properly so you install it alongside Windows. That way you don't risk removing Windows by making some unfortunate choices during the installation. Linux Mint is pretty friendly to newbies (it does a lot of things for you, that on other Linux distros you need to do by hand), but it sounds like you have some hardware incompatibilities that are causing your graphics card driver not to work properly.

Because you got it installed from the Linux Mint DVD, you may possibly boot this still correctly. Please try the following. While booting, hold the Shift key down to get the GRUB boot menu to show. Then press the 'e' key, and in the lines of text that appear scroll to the line that starts with "linux". At the end of that line insert the following: nomodeset xforcevesa acpi=off

This should normally get you to the desktop. Please share if that worked.

[theunseenones]

umm actually it happened when an update finished for ubuntu 12.04 and im using mint i did not think it was a good idea installing over mint but my friend did damn im no brain in linux its a crazy os wow im a windows user A+ certified and im lost never been on linux lol... if i do this and it dont work do i throw out my 2tb hhd?

[xenopeek]

Perhaps if you are more comfortable with Windows, you should continue to use that?

Anyway, the boot parameters are a temporary setting for how the kernel approaches your hardware. It will not modify any files, and upon your next boot these settings will have been forgotten unless you add them anew. It is just to test if you can get to the graphical desktop.

[theunseenones]

yahh i hear yah on that one stick to what i know even know its spyware fest and viruses, after this i think i will never ever install another linux distro i wanted to give it a go i really did but now i have to throw out a perfectly good hdd because i watched a youtube video and i was so lost i can't format a linux os i don't even want to try im so nervous anyhow i went to the grub but then im lost i dont see anything to put those lines of command you gave me sorry for wasting your time good day sir...

[theunseenones]

sorry one more thing i can get to the desktop and the backround wallpaper is there fine but no home folder on my desktop no taskbar no nothing except 3 icons i put there last night, i new it was not a good idea to install a new distro over this one but my friend a linux user said its fine, so i dont know how to format it back to be able to put windows on or i would right this second, so its trash now i don't know anyone in my small town to do it for me or help me....

[xenopeek]

Windows will happily overwrite Linux

[theunseenones]

i went to install windows and it says it can't read the file .sys file .mbr and reboots
i tried that command you gave me it worked but i'm scared to restart now lol...
i'm going to buy in a few min a solid state drive 250g for windows and im downloading the windows installer from linux to install along side windows don't get me wrong but the devs and help should be thinking of an easier way for newbies if they want them to become veterans on linux systems i don't mean to be a nard about it it's just i'm screwed now because i thought hey if i don't like it il get rid of it yahh right easier said than done it's certainly not windows but it is certainly a pain to format...

[homerscousin]

Just a thought here, but before you go too far with that hdd, you may be able to recover a big chunk of those files. If they are important to you you may want to do a search for recovery methods and available software. I know very little about this other than the odd article I've read over the years. I think all you have done to this point is change the boot sectors on the hdd. The vast majority of data still remains intact.

Do not throw the hdd out. It is still usable. If all else fails you can reformat the drive (the old dos fsisk?) and begin again. It's still good.

[Lnx_User1]

This is where a little knowledge can do a lot of damage. As mentioned there might be a recover option/software that works off a boot disk or something to that effect. Or try and see if there is a computer store that does HD recovery in your area. I just recently did a dual boot set up with XP and LM KDE on a single drive. I did a lot of googling before I set out to achieve this. Generally it's recommended to just pick up a second drive and install Linux on that and you can opt to boot into either drive. If you do decide to partition a single drive into two OSs it's generally recommended to back up all data that exist on your PC first.

It took me awhile to get KDE set up properly and smooth running (updating as well as getting the right drivers for my graphics card and wifi) but once I did I have to say that I like it much more than windows or OSX.