Ubuntu Release Update Killed My Server

So, one night after a few too many beers I checked my server and saw the following message for the hundredth time:

Your current Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is going out of support on 08/07/14. After this date security updates for critical parts (kernel and graphics stack) of your system will no longer be available.
For more information, please see:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/1204_HWE_EOL

To upgrade to a supported (or longer supported) configuration:

* Upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS by running:
sudo do-release-upgrade

OR

* Install a newer HWE version by running:
sudo apt-get install

and reboot your system.

Well, the apt-get install hadn’t done anything so I very foolishly typed the release-upgrade command.  Oh I knew I had done a bad thing as soon as I hit return.

Long story short, it fried the server.  I couldn’t reboot and once I did get things going I found that my 2Tb drive wasn’t being recognized.  In trying to fix that, I somehow managed to remove the partition tables from my main drive as well.  sigh!

So needless to say, I learned a lot from that night.  Like don’t mess with the server while lying in bed after a couple of beers!!  I also learned how to retrieve files from a drive with no partition tables and how to use Akeeba backup Kickstarter. (An Awesome piece of software that!!)

As you can tell, my site is still a little screwed up, but at least it’s back online.  So now, I need to post what I learned here in hopes that it may help somebody someday somewhere suffer a little less pain than I had to go through.

Step 1: How to set up an Ubuntu 14.04 install on a screwed up drive.