Ubuntu 10.10 not compatible with graphic card

[Riley01]

I am a Windows user, I even have an Ubuntu 10.04 installed in my system but I rarely use it because I do not know how to operate Ubuntu. Two days back my friend came to my place with a disk of newly launched 10.10 Ubuntu. He suggested me to upgrade my system, so he installed Ubuntu 10.10 in it. But after the installation the system does not boot to O/s. I am really scared because I have some critical data stored in it and cannot even think of losing it. Can my data retrieved back or is it lost permanently ?

[Dr. V]

I think the newly installed Ubuntu 10.10 does not fit with the graphic card i.e the ubuntu 10.10 installed in your system is not compatible with graphic card that is mounted in your system board. I would suggest you to remove the video card that is installed on the PCI slot and try to boot to the O/s again, I hope this will help you at some extent. If it boots to O/s, uninstall the Ubuntu 10.10 and install and use the older one.

[DanielV]

As you said right now the most crucial thing for you is to secure your data as much as you can. So I can suggest you away to successfully accomplish this task. You can load an image the older version of your operating system i.se Ubuntu 10.04 in a USB stick and then mount the hard drive and back up the data in a live session. But beware of it, because I have just heard of such solutions but never witnessed it practically.

[Deep123]

There is one more way to back up your data. You can mount the original os installation through some other Linux, which will give you some hopes to retrieve your critical data back. This process is called chrooting the O/s. I do not have much idea about it , refer to web for much information on chrooting. But once you get your older version back, do not install any operating system unless you have gathered enough information regarding it's compatibility and features.