I am a Linux novice and do not understand quite what is happening. The update manager in my 12.04 installation offered me the upgrade to 14.04 which I decided to do. So I clicked on the link and all seemed well for almost 3 hours. During the 'Upgrade packages' stage my system crashed and powered off without shutting down.
I have tried everything I can think off to get back in to my Ubuntu system including the dpkg recovery for the new version, boot to old version, dpkg recovery for the old version, and even using my original dvd that I saved the image onto for the first install of 12.04. Nothing is giving me access to my system so that I can repair it and get back to work though.
Is there a page somewhere in the help pages that I have missed on what my next steps should be? If I created a bootable usb drive copy of 14.04 would that help, and if so how can I do this?
At The moment I cannot access any of my data which I need to run my business and this is stopping me from working, costing me customers, and money is pouring down the drain. Please help soon as I am desperate.