How can I recover files inside a Wubi install before re-installing Ubuntu?

I failed to inter Ubuntu with this error

GNU GRUB VERSION 1.99-21........etc

I spoke with technical support at www.ubuntu.com he was really nice and he served me will I thank him very much.... but I didn't like his last solution

From the helpfulpost of Boot-info I can see that the partition where you installed Ubuntu (wubi /dev/sda1) is corrupted. The boot-repair tool attempted to repair thatwith the fsck command but it wasn't possible. (failed). I have not further suggestion but to remove Ubuntu installation from within windows (Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Feautures > Uninstall) and then install it again. Of course you will lose your datafrom Ubuntu. Thanks

can you give me other solution or tool so I can save my personal files !!!!! this is my "boot repair" report http://paste.ubuntu.com/1281522/

Solution 1:

When you try to boot a Wubi install and you end up at a grub> prompt, then most likely it's the result of corruption. Wubi installs Ubuntu on a large virtual partition that is a single file called the root.disk (if you install on a FAT32 partition, other .disk files are created as well).

To confirm it you can run the bootinfoscript and you'll see something like:

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 7
    Boot files:        /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe 
                       /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM /wubildr /ubuntu/winboot/wubildr 
                       /wubildr.mbr /ubuntu/winboot/wubildr.mbr 
                       /ubuntu/disks/swap.disk

You can see it lists /ubuntu/disks/swap.disk, but it's also supposed to show /ubuntu/disks/root.disk.

If this happens, the first thing to do is to boot Windows and run chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r (the latter also looks for damaged disk sectors). This will repair any NTFS file system corruption and sometimes fix the damaged root.disk file (but not always).

Here's how to do it from Windows 7. Go to Computer, right click on the "drive" you selected when you installed Wubi e.g. C:\, and select Properties, Tools, Error-checking Check now, and then Start:

If you installed Ubuntu on the C:\ "drive", then you have to reboot Windows to let chkdsk complete. Make sure you don't hit any key at bootup or it will cancel the scan.

Now comes the tricky part. Sometimes Windows will remove the repaired file to a hidden folder called \found.000 or \found.001 (it increments). And in most cases the file name will be lost, so you'll see a file called file0000.chk inside there. In this case you want to look for a file that's about the size of the root.disk (at least 5GB and up to 30GB). You can move that back to \ubuntu\disks\root.disk and you should be good to go. If the entire \ubuntu\disks directory is repaired, then instead you might see a directory \found.000\dir0000.chk and inside that you may find root.disk and swap.disk. In this case, move the directory back, renaming it to disks.

Here is how to do it... hit the Windows key + R, type cmd, look above and right-click on CMD.EXE, and select Run as administrator. Then from the command like:

C:\>cd \found.000
C:\found.000>dir
 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is B4B7-99A8

 Directory of C:\found.000

19/07/2011  02:02 PM    15,000,000,000 file0000.chk
               1 File(s)              8 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  222,258,069,504 bytes free

C:\found.000>move file0000.chk \ubuntu\disks\root.disk
        1 file(s) moved.

or if the whole disks folder is recovered

C:\found.000>move dir0000.chk \ubuntu\disks
        1 dir(s) moved.