system restore

did you buy your pc from dell? did they provide you with a system restore CD? I dont know if they put a restore partition on the hard disk like they do for windows, maybe someone cal elaborate?

on another note, if your daughter doesn have the super user password, i dont think she can damage the system.

Lol, there's basically several different ways to fix this. Choose one to suit you.

1. Does it bootup as far as the grub menu? This lists a "Recovery Mode" which is pretty good and well worth using.

2. If you can boot all the way to a desktop with mouse arrow and taskbars at the top and bottom you may have a huge variety of painstaking ways to fix it - worth trying if there's only 1 or 2 things not quite right with it - such as movies flickering or something simple like that.

3. If you know its only a couple of little things to put back but can't get to a desktop with a working mouse then bootup from a "LiveCd" (that means any bootable linux disc - such as the Ubuntu one). Avoiding any installing to hard-drive get straight to a desktop thats on the Cd and use it to copy stuff from the cd to the hard-drive. If you haven't got an Ubuntu Cd then make one on maybe using a different machine (even one using Windows) from the website
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/getubuntu/download
or alternatively get a distro that is very foccussed on working from a cd such as wolvix or sliTaz
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
DistroWatch is a very good and popular website for comparing different versions of linux, different distro's as they are called.

There are a few more serious options but it'll take me a while to type them out.

Good luck trying these first
Regards from
Tom :)

Ooops, sorry i didn't edit 3 very well

3. If you know its only a couple of little things to put back but can't get to a desktop with a working mouse then bootup from a "LiveCd" (that means any bootable linux disc - such as the Ubuntu one). Avoiding any "installing to hard-drive" options and get straight to a desktop. Remember this is the desktop on the Cd, not the hard-drive. Use it to copy back any files or stuff from the LiveCd's desktop and folders to the hard-drive's equivalent places. If you haven't got an Ubuntu Cd then make one from the website
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/getubuntu/download
Note you can use a different machine to make the Ubuntu cd as long as it can burn to a blank cd, even a Windows machine will do. Just double click on the downloaded iso when you have a blank cd in the tray.
Alternatively get a distro that is very focussed on working from a LiveCd session such as Wolvix or SliTaz instead of Ubuntu.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
DistroWatch is a very good and popular website for comparing different versions of linux, different distro's as they are called.

4. This is probably the easiest because you shouldn't need to do any backing up (hopefully). Just follow
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
but instead of dual-booting between Windows and Ubuntu you'll set up a dual-boot between the old Ubuntu and the new Ubuntu. The new one will be able to read the old one's data so nothing should get lost. Also the resizing part is easier for a linux partition than for a Windows one - less chance of there being a problem.

5. Ok, this is the total reinstall option. It's going to be easier for you to do than for me to describe and it's going to sound like a lot to do and worry about but actually you'll find it quite easy to do - the easiest of the options except the first, in the longer run. Backup data using a LiveCd, SliTaz is probably best because you can take the cd out while it's running - or try another distro, such as Puppy.. Once you're at a usable desktop with a working mouse either copy stuff onto a cd or onto another hard-drive or onto a usb stick. Basically just copy the "/home" folder which you can find from the documents folder just by going up a few levels. Remember it's the "/home" directory on the hard-drive that you need to copy, not the one from the LiveCd. Reboot and put the Ubuntu Cd in and reinstall it but when you get to the partitioning stage choose "Manual" rather than "Guided" or automatic. Look through each partition (probably only 2) to make sure it wont reformat any of the partitions. This shoudl put everything back without losing any of your daughters important work and without losing any added in programs that she'll need.

Good luck with this and please let us know which way you tried and how it went. Feel free to ask for more info because i've been a bit unclear although i've managed to talk a lot. Not a great combination, sorry about that.

Regards from
Tom :)

If you are still having trouble with this then please post it as a new question. Only the most recent questions tend to get looked at so posting/reposting a question just before america arrives online gives the best chance of getting a good few answers.

If the problem has been resolved then please follow the link to the forum thread and mark it as Solved.

Good luck and many regards from
Tom :)