Completely Screwed; Reinstall Help Needed

[bloodangel27]

Alright.
I am fairly new to all this Ubuntu stuff.
I don't even know if this is the right forum to ask for help.

I do believe that I have completely screwed up my computer in my ignorance.
It refuses to open any folders (or rather, it will START to open them, then close before the window appears), it will not update, sudo is unresponsive, and whenever I try to access programs I have placed on the desktop, it gets mad and 'locks' the desktop, for lack of a better term. It sucks. ><

After sitting in utter frustration as my attempts to look for help on pre-established threads failed, I concluded that the best course of action is for me to reinstall Ubuntu and start fresh. Others on this website say that it is possible to do this all from the boot disc, so I tried that. However, the disc will not run automatically, nor from the Places menu, making this impossible.

Does ANYONE know how to fix this?
Again, my main goal is to start fresh with a clean installation, and perhaps get a dual-boot thing going.
Oh, and I have 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS, if that helps any.

Many thanks in advance. ^^

[karthick87]

Welcome to ubuntuforums

If you have a plan of doing fresh installation,then backup your important datas and then go for a fresh installation..

[bludgard]

Can you not change boot order in BIOS?

Usually pressing F2 repeatedly at boot will get you to an option to boot from CD/DVD ROM.

[karthick87]

Set CD Rom as your first boot device in your BIOS first.

[bloodangel27]

I honestly never thought of that. ^^"
I shall try this.

You all are fantastically awesome.

[bloodangel27]

YAY!!!

It worked splendidly!
There is not an emoticon out there that depicts the sheer amount of joy I feel.

Thank you a zillion times over to those who assisted!!!!!!!