Question about reinstall

**kalebka55** · October 27th, 2011

I am trying to reinstall ubuntu 10.04 onto my laptop.

Question: Do I need to worry about the / partition when I install
i.e. should I backup / to my external hard drive -or- will the reinstall just renew the contents of / ?

During this reinstallation I am moving the / partition to a location that will allow me to expand its size. I am doing this via ubuntu literature very carefully. is there anything I should be aware of before I attempt this?

Any comments appreciated

**roger_1960** · October 27th, 2011

Hi

As with any operations on partitions you should backup all of your data before starting. Not quite sure what you are attempting with moving the partition - sounds like it will overwrite everything......

**BillyBoa** · October 27th, 2011

I'm afraid that you are going to lose everything during the installation. Re installing means that a new system is installed and it has to be formatted the directory /. Only the /home directory can be excluded.

**kalebka55** · October 27th, 2011

Originally Posted by roger_1960

Hi

. Not quite sure what you are attempting with moving the partition - sounds like it will overwrite everything......

I am moving my / partition to a space where I am able to expand its size. My /home partition has 50 gb to spare and I want to move / to the empty space and expand its size.

I have backed up everything on /home and need to know whether I should backup / before I reinstall (if I need to)?

**Sef** · October 27th, 2011

I have backed up everything on /home and need to know whether I should backup / before I reinstall (if I need to)?

Back up everything to a separate hard drive - one that is not connected to the computer.

Another option is to clone your hard drive with Clonezilla.

**kalebka55** · October 27th, 2011

I have been told that 10 gb is sufficient space for the /. However, my / is filled to max capasity. Does anyone know possibilities that could have caused this?