How to rescue my data files before reconfiguring the 2 HD's of my desktop PC?!

[Bas Roufs]

Hello Karl and everybody

>> Attempts to repair the grub of the Kubuntu 9.10 partition at the
>> desktop via a "grub rescue cd" finally failed yesterday - (snip)

> (snip) I want to know just about the above. You are using 9.10 which has the new grub2
> which you must use ... (snip)

Your presumptions are partially right. I do use Kubuntu 9.10 - at both
computers. At the new laptop, from which I write this message, it's a
fresh install, together with Grub2. But at my desktop, Kubuntu 9.10 is
an upgrade from the previous version, 9.04 - that's why, I still have/
had Grub Legacy in that configuration. Only a special separate grub
upgrade could have delivered me Grub2 - but only after the crash, the
story about the grub upgrade became clear to me. Cf.:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

>     What happened to your grub?
In December I carried out out a backport ppa upgrade from KDE 4.2. to
4.3. That upgrade worked out well, because of the many improvements
and bug fixes. Then, I forgot about my backport ppa which remained
'open'. That's why, an automatic update came in a few months ago: from
KDE 4.3. to 4.4. After that upgrade, I had several complications -
e.g. KAddressbook wich did not work any more properly, and some
'broken dependencies'. That's why, I closed the backport PPA and
sticked only to the normal update system. However, the 'broken
dependencies' problem has become worse. At a certain moment, the
update system did not function any more. Finally, the system got
totally stuck/ frozen/ non-responsive in the middle of a working
session.The cursor was immovable, actions via the mouse and keyboard
did not deliver any more any response. It was not possible any more to
stop and restart the system - not via the K-menu, also not via
"control-alt-del". Also interventions via the system monitor did not
work any more. The ONLY option left was simply unplugging the PC.
But each following attempt to normally restart the PC already
stagnates in the very beginning as follows:
GRUB Loading stage 1.5
GRUB loading, please wait .....
Error 18
Already after 'Error 18',  nothing happens any more. Every restart
attempt ends up in again 'Error 18', unless I boot from USB or CD.
Apparently something has happened with the grub, because of which I do
not manage any more to boot from the sdb7-partition. Also attempts to
mount sdb7 via a live system have failed so far.

> Do you have just the 9.10 on your computer?

No.  I also have Windows XP and Kubuntu 7.10.

> How many hard drives?

Two:
* sda,  80GB, with Windows at sda1 and a data partition at sda5.
* sdb, 160GB, with Kubuntu 7.10 at sda1, a data partition at sda6 and
Kubuntu 9.10 at sda 7.

Respecfully yours,

Bas.