So it all started on a day much like today, because it is today but that's not the point, when I got a notification telling me I haven't upgraded to 14.04. Not due to lack of trying, however. It offered to upgrade me itself. Now keep in mind, I've tried very hard to upgrade my is from 12.04 to 14.04. Many times, I believe, due to tinkering where there shouldn't be tinkering, my BIOS are messed up. So upgrading is essentially impossible, but I wasn't about to stop it from updating for me, thinking it didn't have too much to do with BIOS as it doesn't reboot until after. So I let it go about its business and some time later I look back at it, and my unity sidebar is gone, and anytime there's text on screen it shows as those box things.

The real bottom line is that I want to know my options. All of them. I would love to be able to keep the stuff on my hard drive so a hard drive swap may be an option if you guys say that would work. I just need my computer back. Let me know if I left anything out.

Peace! B^)