When I start my laptop all my files are gone

anderhm

I just installed ubuntu 14.04.1 from my flash drive, installed a few things and copied some files. When I restarted the laptop the files were gone, the softwares I installed weren`t there anymore and there`s and now there`s an icon (right above the files icon) that says install ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS. And also, the flash drive has to be connected in order for ubuntu to start. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to install it and copy the files again? And how do I keep this from happening again?

Limdi

I just installed ubuntu 14.04.1 from my flash drive, installed a few things and copied some files.

What do you mean with "installed"?
The icon on your screen suggests that you are using a live-cd to boot from.

Live-cds are there to be able to test the os of ur liking, and then, can be installed out of the live-cd environment via the Install icon on your screen.

So if u just started from live-cd, nothing gets installed, all is temporary.
Up until the point u choose to install.

Which can be started with the icon.
At some point in the boot process you might be able to choose 'Start from live-cd sth' or 'Install Ubuntu Xyz'.

Both ways are supposed to work.

anderhm

thanks for replying. i'm sorry but I wasn't clear enough. I did everything again and now I have a similar problem. I installed ubuntu and rebooted the laptop when I was asked. And it did reboot without a problem (just like last time). After that the installation icon was gone and I started using it, but on the next day when I started the laptop it says "ntldr is missing press ctrl+alt+del". What happened? What did I do wrong?

Limdi

Cause I use debian i cannot exactly tell what might went wrong.

A google search for "ubuntu ntldr is missing" got me to awesome ubuntu guys who can help much better with ubuntu stuff, which says that grub2, which ubuntu most likely uses, is not installed correctly.

Its possible that as u got asked to reboot, the reboot process did not fully reboot your laptop, so maybe did not use grub2 to load ubuntu.

Now when the live-cd is not there for rebooting anymore, the problem comes into focus.

Since im not familiar with ubuntu it would probably be easier to follow the url above to solve your problem.

Ubuntu-Forums

saqman2060

anderhm wrote:

thanks for replying. i'm sorry but I wasn't clear enough. I did everything again and now I have a similar problem. I installed ubuntu and rebooted the laptop when I was asked. And it did reboot without a problem (just like last time). After that the installation icon was gone and I started using it, but on the next day when I started the laptop it says "ntldr is missing press ctrl+alt+del". What happened? What did I do wrong?

"ntldr" is the bootloader used to boot a windows operating system. Ubuntu and most Linux distributions is Grub2 as the bootloader. It appears, based on the error message, you have windows installed on your laptop. From experience, when I installed ubuntu(ubuntu-based OS) to my system, as a "clean" install, the installation erases everything on my hard drive. This includes, files, and previous operating systems. The installation overwrites any bootloaders in the MBR(master boot record) with its own bootloader, Grub2 for instance. Provided everything went well, my system boots right into linux.

The fact that you are getting the "ntldr" error would suggest that you do have windows on your laptop but you overwritten the "ntldr" with ubuntu's grub bootloader.

Without "ntldr" or any others of the windows boot files, windows will not load. Grub has detected a windows partition but can't load it.

"ntldr" is used to boot windows operating systems up to an including XP and windows server 2003. I can infer that you have windows XP on your laptop.

First thing I need you to do is to check if you still have a Windows installation on your laptop, is so, what version.

Then decide if you want to keep it or completely remove it. Based on your answer, we can direct you in the right areas.

Hope to hear from you soon.

MohdSohail

ntldr is the bootloader which boots the operating system. Sometimes while installing some applications or playing with configuration you may face such error but also when you have two oprating system installed on the same hard disk and same drive then such error might happen. The better would be to remember what software you installed before it got currepted then you'll find the file that is actually causing problem booting up machine. You can then fix that after booting from live cd or usb.

yoginetindia

First of all if "ntldr is missing" . It need to be fixed using boot floppy, CD-R, or USB . You can take help from ntldrismissing.com
Hope it helps
Manmeet
yoginet

mfillpot

I am late to the conversation, but it sound like the first attempt was just run from the USB stick and not installed. The second attempt appears to have installed successfully, but the bootloader is not recognized which is why it is looking for the windows bootloader. It may be a case where EUFI is enabled on the system and the non-EUFI bootloader was installed and configured. If you reinstall ubuntu and follow the instructions at help.ubuntu.com, then the bootloader will automatically find the windows installation and correct the boot issue for windows while granting the option of system at boot time..

saqman2060

mfillpot, dualbooting on a UEFI system looks to becoming a complex process. Does not seem to be getting easy. I am learning that to install a non-uefi system, the end-user has to disable uefi and use legacy bois. If they want to keep uefi enabled then the end-user has to use a uefi-compatible system. What are the chances that not all UEFI systems behave the same?