ubuntu dapper to hardy upgrade i messed up!

[travismcha]

So i have a big problem i attepmted to upgrade from dapper to hardy and well it didnt go to well. I used the update manager and just clicked on the update to hardy button and it started working i downloaded the new registries and file and what not and when it was installing them it threw an error message missing some file or what not so i clicked ok then it said update cannot be complete running a reboot to a saved system backup to save files and what not so i clicked ok. Then the update manager stayed on the screen and i was looking at the terminal and it kept repeating the same code looking for like the same four or five files saying they are not there and that it cannot use them then it would say something about reset then it would look for the files again and it would just go in circles. It lasted for like half an hour just going in circles the install screen for the updates was at about halfway done and it said 9 hours 32 minutes to go and the time didnt change that whole half hour. I didnt know what to do so i made a big mistake and turned it off so yea i tried to startt it back up and it takes me straight to a terminal screen where its all text based no user interface and now i am completely lost and i need to get it back up and running again any ideas? suggestions? help? I am beyond freaking out. Anyways let me know!

[Sidewinder1]

At this point I believe that you're dealing with damage control, as I do not think the old version can be repaired. I would do the following:
Boot to the Hardy Live CD; copy all data files (music, video, documents, bookmarks, spreadsheets, etc. and anything else that you do not wish to loose forever) to an external hard disk, pen-drive, CD/DVD or whatever else you have that has the capacity for all of that data.
Then install Hardy from the live CD into the same partition where Dapper was.
For future reference, I think to upgrade (as opposed to a clean install) you need to do it version by version. IE: you can't skip a version...

HTH,
Side

[slakkie]

Hi, see my sig for your answer. You didn't mess up, since the upgrade process is unable to retreive the files needed to upgrade. No harm done ;)

[Sidewinder1]

Wow! I have never seen that. Many thanks slakkie.

[travismcha]

ok well here is the issue i just started using ubuntu so i am still kinda new to the aspect i have used html alot and dabbled in c++ so i understand using the terminal just not fluent in the language but anyways. So if i am just in the terminal automatically on startup i have no interface will the update method given by slakkie still work and now i do not know what version i have i thought dapper was it but now that i look at it i am not sure. Now where would i aqquire the live CD can i download it and burn it to a CD or what? sorry if the questions seem kinda basic i just need to get this computer up and running as quick as possible.