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My laptop crashed (Sony Vaio) and I had a lot of important files that I need to recover. I got a suggestion from a friend that I can try to recover them with a Ubuntu Live-CD.

I downloaded both x86_64 and x86 version and when I insert it in my computer it boots up, so far no problems. Then I choose Home folder - Computer and there should be a hard drive but nothing shows except "file system" which I suppose is Ubuntu Live-CD files...

Anyone know what I can do to recover my files please? I can't even install Windows again because there's a error in the disk, it says ......:/.

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What do you mean with 'My laptop crashed`? If the physical HDD died then you can not use windows, nor will Ubuntu or any other OS help you. You will need to get a new drive and restore data from backups. If the windows installation merely got corrupted then a Ubuntu LiveCD should work, but we need more information if we are going to help. E.g. what is the error you get. heres a error in the disk it says. is just not specific enough. – Hennes Sep 18 '12 at 17:35
Well I was using it normally. Then the computer started to getting all slow, I rebooted but still the same. I tried to copy some files to my external harddrive but was not able. I tried to reboot again but now I couldn't get inside. It just says "Operating system not found". – Aldin Sep 18 '12 at 17:51
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Try this as a first step: Go to the laptop's BIOS. Check if that can see the HDD. If it is not you either have a loose cable, loose connector or the drive is dead. In which case you check if it is under warranty. If it is not then continue with LiveCDs or download the maintenance manual. – Hennes Sep 18 '12 at 17:55
Under boot priority it says: Select 1st boot priority- internal optical disc drive Select 2nd boot priority- internal hard disk drive Select 3rd boot priority- external device It doesn't say anything about the HDD? I can also mention that I had a problem before this problem occured. Everytime I moved the laptop screen up or down it used to shut down the computer. Also when I lifted it up, the computer just turned off. – Aldin Sep 18 '12 at 18:15
"2nd boot priority-internal hard disk drive" is the HDD. The other problems you mention sound very bad. Something loose or shorting out. At this point, I would probably remove the hard drive from the laptop and try to recover the data with another computer. – JoshP Sep 20 '12 at 13:16

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