how can I "become" user#1000 and recover the "right" to make backup copies?

Question

I've installed Ubuntu 16.04 and effectively lost control of my computer which worked just fine under Ubuntu 14.04. I just need a simple command line instruction(s) so I can save my files on my 2tb backup drive, reformat my hard drive and start all over again. Even though I don't want to use it I've even lost access to the partitions with Windows 7 on them.

Answer 1

Here's a few steps that you might want to do:

1. Find a friend with a computer. Download Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installation *.iso file, and create bootable USB using an utility of your choice for creating installation USB. Buy your friend a beer if necessary.
2. Insert the USB into the computer, boot and enter Boot Selection menu. Select to boot from USB. Usually this is F8 key, but it depends on your computer.

3. Once your computer boots to USB, choose "Try Ubuntu", press Ctrl-Alt-F1.

4. You will need to know which /dev/ device is your hard drive. Use lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE for that. ext4 is Ubuntu , ntfs is Windows - general rule of thumb. Here's my output example - primary solid state drive /dev/sda has Ubuntu on /dev/sda1 , and secondary hard drive has whole bunch of Windows stuff:

   NAME   FSTYPE
   sda    
   └─sda1 ext4
   sdb    
   ├─sdb1 ntfs
   ├─sdb2 vfat
   ├─sdb3 ntfs
   ├─sdb4 ntfs
   ├─sdb5 ntfs
   └─sdb6 ext4
   

5. Once you know which one is your Ubuntu, do the following (substitute /dev/sda1 with your actual paritition found in step 4)

   sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
   
   sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   
   sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
   
   sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
   

6. At this point you can either change password for your user to recover your system, or run rsync command to copy files somewhere. Take a look at this for reference if you choose to copy files:Copy file to External Hard Disk If you choose to change password, do

   sudo passwd your_login_name