Unmount virtual CD/DVDin Ubuntu 11.10

I'm new to Ubuntu 11.10 and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I've had it installed it on my pc for a couple months and am very pleased with it.

I don't now exactly how but in downloading and fooling around with a virtual cd/dvd program I seem to have inadvertently installed it. I had to shut down my computer for a while and when I re booted it all my files and my setup was gone. I have a brand new 11.10 setup with all the programs installed that I originally had but no files or bookmarks etc.. I'm not sure, but I think I'm running in a virtual cd/dvd (my activity record is listed below). I'm not exactly sure how to determine if I am in a virtual system or not and can't boot up in my original setup. Can you advise me how to regain my original setup?

I was looking at some info on virtual cd/dvd programs, thinking they might be a good way to speed up the burning of videos. I was reading an article that suggested expanding the software repositories on my pc and in doing so, must have inadvertantly cut and pasted the wrong command into the terminal. I continued using my setup at the time with no problem and eventually shut down for a while. When I booted back up I had an entirely new setup. My desktop setup was gone and network info were all gone and I was back to an original ubuntu desktop. While all the programs I had installed in my original setup (before I typed in the wrong command) were still showing in the Gnome applications menu, all my folders are empty (document, videos and photos gone) and all of the personal folders I had made are also gone.

In looking back at my history in the Ubuntu Software Center and Synaptic Software Center I think that I had inadvertantly typed in and installed the virtualbox-fuse program. Now, I'm apparently booting up into that program and can't figure out how to turn it off without doing any more damage to my previous files (if they still exist).

I used the KDE Partition manager to look at my partitions. It shows my primary (boot) partition as "sda 1, mounted at /". I don't know exatly what that means but the partition manager presents the option of unmounting that partition. I don't know if I should do that and/or if, given the choice, I should select another partition as the boot partition or what(?).

I sure would like to have all my files show back up. I had just finished downloading them from an old desktop and would hate to lose them all. I'm just looking for some guidence with what my next move should be. I also see that when I typed in that wrong command it removed my ubuntu desktop and I assume that is where my file info went. If I restore those removed programs will that replace my file structure? If I should restore the Ubunto desktop should I do it before or after unmounting the virtual drive?

This was my activity just before I shut down and just prior to the change:

Commit Log for Wed Mar 21 13:06:30 2012

Removed the following packages:

libgd2-xpm ubuntu-desktop

Installed the following packages:

libgd2-noxpm (2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-5.1ubuntu1) libxpm-dev (1:3.5.9-1ubuntu1) libxpm4-dbg (1:3.5.9-1ubuntu1)

Installed the following packages:

inkscape (0.48.2-0ubuntu1) libatlas3gf-base:i386 (3.8.4-3build1) libgc1c2 (1:7.1-8) libgfortran3:i386 (4.6.1-9ubuntu3) libgsl0ldbl (1.15+dfsg-1) libmagick++3 (8:6.6.0.4-3ubuntu1) libopenblas-base:i386 (0.1alpha2.2-3) libquadmath0:i386 (4.6.1-9ubuntu3) libwmf-bin (0.2.8.4-7ubuntu4) perlmagick (8:6.6.0.4-3ubuntu1) python-dbg (2.7.2-7ubuntu2) python-numpy (1:1.5.1-2ubuntu2) python-numpy-doc (1:1.5.1-2ubuntu2) python-renderpm (2.5-1.1) python-reportlab (2.5-1.1) python-reportlab-accel (2.5-1.1) python-uniconvertor (1.1.4-1build2) python2.7-dbg (2.7.2-5ubuntu1)

TY

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