I know, this has been asked and answered all over the internet already. However, I start feeling stupid, since the informations there are not helping me.

Just this morning, I wanted to install the newest update to 13.10. After the download, when it came to the actual installing, the install program froze and didn't do anything for hours.

At that time, I was still logged in. The computer was working and everything was accessable to me. However, I made the mistake and didn't immediately make safety copies of everything. Instead, I just rebooted.

Long story short: My computer even fails to reset to a previous version via Grub. But I am able to boot from a USB stick and, after starting Nautilus, I see my home folder on the HD. I would now like to copy its contents onto an external harddisk.

Problem 1: I have no rights to access the folder like that. Problem 2: It is encrypted. Problem 3: I don't know how to give myself the rights to access the folder nor do I know how to encrypt it.

I assume that it might help that I still know these things: - my old login name - my old login phrase - a 32 characters long string of hexadecimal numbers that I copied to my list of passwords as "Ubuntu Encryption Code". I copied it digitally right after installing Ubuntu the first time and encrypting the home folder, so there won't be any typos. I am sure of that.

The solutions that I saw so far, tell me that I need the "encryption phrase".

But when I follow the instructions and use this phrase that I have in my list, I only get messages of denial.

Can anyone help me through this special problem, please?