Recover files from Ubuntu using Win 7, and repair start-up

Question

About 4 months ago, I installed Ubuntu 12.04 via wubi onto my laptop to run alongside Windows 7. At start-up, I can select which OS I would like to use.

Last night, I was working on two reports, and ended up writing about twenty pages between the two files. I wrote them using LibreOffice Writer, in case that is important. At the end of the night, I shut down my laptop as usual, saving and closing everything beforehand. When I turned my laptop on this afternoon, I tried to boot up Ubuntu, but it became stuck on the purple screen that it sends you to while booting up the OS. I let it sit for an hour and it still didn't get anywhere. I haven't installed or downloaded anything for about two weeks, and that was just Adobe Flash Player. I don't go to very many places on the internet, and I know that the couple of sites I use are safe, so I don't know what may have caused this startup issue. However, this topic is less important. During start-up, there is nothing saying that anything is missing or corrupted.

I figure I will probably have to reinstall Ubuntu, but is there any way that I can repair it and not lose my files that I have?

Also, if I have to reinstall, I would like to at least temporarily move the two files I was working on last night. They are the only two that I have not backed up yet. I saw a bunch of articles on this site and in a couple other places saying to install various ext2reader programs and such. I tried the four that everyone kept saying to use, but none of them actually found any files or even seemed to work. Every article I found is over a year old, so I am hoping that those programs were just outdated, and someone here might know a way for me to recover those files via windows that actually works.

So my two questions here would be: Is there a way for me to recover my LibreOffice Writer files from Ubuntu via Win7? How can I repair the start-up for Ubuntu, or do I have to reinstall it?

Answer 1

I recommend installing ext2fsd. It is basically a driver that allows you to view files in an ext2, ext3, or ext4 filesystem and mount them just as your C: drive in Windows.

In the ext2fsd program, right click on the partition you want to mount. Select ext2 management. check automatically mount via ext2mgr and choose a drive letter.

Your newly mounted partition should be viewable under my computer in Windows Explorer, and you should be able to copy the files with ease.

I personally think that it would just be easier to resinstall Ubuntu since you can back up your important files in Windows now.