cannot see existing folders on same drive as ubuntu

The way I read your message is that you have two hard drives. Windows is installed on the 80 GB drive and Ubuntu is installed on the 320 GB drive

If you installed Ubuntu onto your second hard drive without partitioning off your existing data, then unfortunately your data is lost.

I can see my data if I boot from windows I cannot see it if I boot from Ubuntu

You probably need to mount the drive. Type the command:

 sudo fdisk -l

It will give some output like this:

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 14616 117402988+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 14617 14946 2650725 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 14617 14946 2650693+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0000d7ed

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 29644 238115398+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 29645 30401 6080602+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 29645 30401 6080571 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Look for the device id of the drive you're trying to look at, for example /dev/sda1

Create a mount point, for example:

sudo mkdir /media/data

Then mount the drive to your mount point, for example:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/data

You should then be able to see your files by navigating to /media/data

I tried the command that you gave me yeshara. the command and response is listed below.
I do not have a dedicated partition. Something to do with installing with WUBI.

phil@phil-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -1
fdisk: invalid option -- 1

Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
       fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
       fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
       fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors

sorry was typing 1 instead of l
response is;

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd621d621

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 9729 78148161 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6b6355d3

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 38913 312568641 7 HPFS/NTFS

so I want to see the data on the 320gb hd. What should I type to create a mount point for this hd.

thanks guys, problem fixed

To create a mount point:

sudo mkdir /media/windows - or anything you wish to call it

to mount it:

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/windows