Backup up files from corrupted Ubuntu upgrade - permissions issue

[ColKurtz]

I attempted to upgrade 10.04 to 10.10 and things got hosed. It won't boot now... I think it's a graphics issue (resolution errrors when trying to launch recovery shell). but I'd prefer to just wipe the partition and start over. 10.04 was my first attempt at using Ubuntu for my main PC and I'm not all sure what all I mucked with.... would prefer to start with clean slate.

The only thing holding me back is I have some videos and pictures of my kids in my Home folder, but I cannot copy them off. When I boot the live CD and mount the linux FS (this is XP dual boot), I get permissions error opening or copying the media directory. I had some other files/directories I copied off with no problems.

Is there an easy way to grab those files with permission errors, or am I going to have to full PD on the boot problem to get them back?

TIA.

 

[ColKurtz]

Nevermind... I earlier had tried reinstalling Ubuntu to try and fix the boot problem. I discovered that it had installed into a new extended partition. I chose that in grub, was able to boot and copy the pictures/videos off. I have a new problem that I cannot boot into windows from grub, but will make a new topic for that.

 

[MrColin]

In case you get this again you could have used "sudo -i" and the password "ubuntu" to get root and then either cp or nautilus as root to copy the files.