Okay...so this was kind of a stupid thing for me to do now that I think back on it.

I was experiencing a ton of lag and not as much memory that I could use after installing Ubuntu 12.04. So after remembering I had installed multiple server versions of Ubuntu 12.04 by mistake, I went into Disk Management and proceeded to delete each and every one. Everything went fine.

Up until this week, I have not experienced any problems. But starting yesterday I began to get lag just as I had before, and nothing fixed the problem. I decided to remove the Ubuntu partition, since I was also experiencing a visual error when given the option to select one to boot(the screen doesn't come up at all, and I recieved a monitor resolution error instead, but could still access both Windows and Ubuntu via arrow keys). After deleting the Ubuntu partition, so that I could see if running just Windows would fix the problem, I proceeded with what I was doing, installing a few programs that were not tied to my prediciment in any way.

Upon rebooting my desktop, however, I recieved the following error:

error: unknown filesystem.
grub rescue>

Hoping I could boot into Ubuntu via a pendrive and possibly backup my important files and wipe the hard drive to start fresh, I installed Ubuntu 13.04, but even that does not boot. Instead, I get this message on a terminal screen:

SYSLINUX 4.06. EDD 4.06-pre1 Copyright (C) 1994-2011 H. Peter Anvin et al
ERROR: No configuration file found
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot:

So more or less, my desktop is screwed. I need to be able to get to the files inside because of my job as an artist, as well as retrieve my documents for my stories stored on Windows. Once I can succeed in solving this once and for all, I know for a fact I will stick to Ubuntu only, and install what is required to be able to run any Windows applications I used to use or need to use.

I would rather not reformat the hard drive, and if I need to, it is a last resort. And I doubt I can use a Windows Recovery Disk to get my files back, as my mom has thrown out a lot of the installation disks and paperwork I would need to even follow through with that. :\

Keep in mind that I am a novice/newbie when it comes to Linux, but am hoping ot become better at it as time goes by.

I appreciate any help you guys can give me. This will probably be the last time I attempt to do anything that could risk the well-being of my PC.

(I've also looked through various questions on the site and tested a lot of the solutions. None seem to have worked.)