Forum :: Lounge :: Xubuntu OS Boot Error?

I have a partition of Xubuntu installed inside Windows 7 on my laptop's old hard drive. A while ago (thanksgiving-ish) I did the xubuntu auto-update thing and when I restarted, the OS itself was broken. The issue is that every time I boot to Xubuntu, it restarts the system before even giving me a command prompt or showing me a screen to select the version or anything. 

I didn't care about it for a while but now I need to retrieve some source code from it for a programming class. I can't find any way to access the .disk file stored on my computer and a limited experience working in any sort of Linux environment. Is there a way for me to either a) repair the operating system, or b) access the file system so I can get some files back?

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class EOSERV {
Programmer | Oldbie
Open source EO Client: https://github.com/ethanmoffat/EndlessClient
};

I'm not a linux pro or anything of that nature but I dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu and have had this simular problem in the past with updating my kernel (a lot of the newer ones have been pretty unstable lately 10.10+)  I use this to access my Linux partition directly through windows 7 -not sure if it will work for you but might help you retrieve your files (download here): http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html

Will only work with Ext2 and Ext3 file systems so if you're running the newest Xubuntu with Ext4 file system I don't think it will work.  If so try this: http://ext2read.blogspot.com/ which allows you to explore Ext2/3/4 file system and copy files. (kind of nulls the first download I guess rofl)

Do you know what type of update it was pertained to?  Could be a few things such as a the "old HD" taking a dump as well, bad drivers, messed up boot loader etc.  Does it boot straight to windows?  If so the boot loader was wiped.  Very easy fix.

Also, going to ubuntu/xubuntu forums could help you quite a bit as there is quite a lot of knowledgeable people there.  Might be a better option to ask them.

Hope the program works for you, if not - follow up with going to the forums I spoke of, they will most likely solve your problem.

Ext2explore works just great! Thanks! I swear I searched for an hour for something like this -.-

---
class EOSERV {
Programmer | Oldbie
Open source EO Client: https://github.com/ethanmoffat/EndlessClient
};

Just a suggestion. Ever tried Wubi? Windows Ubuntu installer.