Will 9.04 reformat my drive? I do not want that.

[penguinv]

Title: Will 9.04 reformat my drive? I do not want that.

I already have 7.04 and I want to keep the things on my hard drive that are in my desktop and my home folder.

Can that be done? I see no reason to trash my personal stuff.



:popcorn:

PS I have a P-3 with 330RAM and a 30G HD.

[00b00nt00]

I believe that you can incrementally update 7.10 to 9.04 through the software update. You could also partition the hard disk and have both 7.10 and 9.04 running. In both these cases you will keep your files.

Personally, I would back up my files to a USB key and upgrade through software update.

[svivian]

To be honest it is probably easier to install 9.04 from scratch than run incremental updates. Otherwise you'd need to update to 8.04 then 8.10 then 9.04, each of which takes an hour or more and may bring a problem or two.

I'm hoping it's possible to upgrade while keeping you home folder - I'm looking for this answer as well! I have several GB of files that I can't easily back up anywhere, my USB stick is 'only' 8 GB.

If you decide to go the upgrade route, and your computer is old, I would recommend burning a copy of the Live CD in order to check that v9 will work. If it does, then use the update manager as 00b00nt00 suggested.

[donpedrodos]

I already have 7.04 and I want to keep the things on my hard drive that are in my desktop and my home folder.

Can that be done? I see no reason to trash my personal stuff.

I think it all depends on applications wich you installed on your 7.04 system.

Are you running 7.04 already for a long time, and why you didn't upgrade with the releases?

Are all your applications installed via ADD/REMOVE?
Or, have you compiled applications by you self?

The ADD/REMOVE applications are mosttime upgraded, but applications compiled yourself you must to complile new.

But before screwing around, backup your existing system....in case al goes to "byte heaven".

An application that you can you can use to backup things is:

Simple Backup Suite for desktop use
Simple Backup Suite is a set of backend backup daemon and GNOME GUI frontends that provide a simple yet powerful backup solution for common desktop users.
Backups can be written to local directory or remote servers using GNOME VFS technology. A fine control is possible regarding what folders and files to backup. Files can be excluded even with a set of regular expressions. Regular backups can be scheduled.
This tool has been written with Google sponsorship during Summer of Code 2005 with mentoring help from Ubuntu.

Due the fact i want also to upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04, but i still wait.
Because i read a lot of problems of people who upgraded the system.
I going to wait a month or so before i going to upgrade my system.

[penguinv]

Contains: Reactions to DonPedrosDos' comments and conclusion.
This is what I thought. Then I actually started the installation to see what it said. That is in the next post "Another solution possibility".

Quote: Re: Will 9.04 reformat my drive? I do not want that.
Originally Posted by penguinv
I already have 7.04 and I want to keep the things on my hard drive that are in my desktop and my home folder.
Can that be done? I see no reason to trash my personal stuff.
+ PS I have a P-3 with 330RAM and a 30G HD

DONPEDRODOS REPLY:
I think it all depends on applications wich you installed on your 7.04 system.
PENGUINV:
I dont care about applications. I only want "data", ie files on my desktop and home folder.
None of them are applications. Some are images, some text files, some web pages, some backscrolls from running conversations, lots are photos and music.

from DONPEDRODOS REPLY:
Are you running 7.04 already for a long time, and why you didn't upgrade with the releases?
PENGUINV:
Yes, it was current when I installed it. The reason was in my post (but they dont quote the text after the smilie:)
"PS I have a P-3 with 330RAM and a 30G HD."
Version 7.10 needed more RAM than I have and therefore I could not upgrade.
--> Last week I noticed something about 9.04 that said 256MBRAM and so I burned a disk for 9.04. <--

PENGUINV: This is all N/A but I will answer anyway.
DONPEDRODOS:
Are all your applications installed via ADD/REMOVE? -- DUHHH?
Or, have you compiled applications by yourself? -- NEVER.

PENGUINV reiterates in a modulated form of anger: Warning, opinion: I have posted here and again both that I cannot figure out how to install an application and that I cannot get a particular application. I installed LostIRC, it was automatic. I tried and tried but I think I never got Java. I couldnt get a torrent client and gave up until recently and it was such a lame client that I abandoned the effort again. I could never install FF3. I installed Opera way back but didnt use it because I couldn't get flash on it.
The only thing I was able to install was XChat and that was because "I did what you shouldnt do" which was typing what someone told me to. (He did not explain what was being invoked exactly but I had enough of a grasp by then.)

I am personally of the opinion that the Linux-crowd wants to force someone into learning deeper things about Ubuntu rather than providing folks with a useful reliable tool and then ATTRACTING them into learning about Linux. I've never found a clear intro to Linux. They either gloss or get lost in the rootlets and toejam.

I see nothing wrong with making a turnkey system - that is also open, adapt at your own risk.
I actually think that is what Canonical wants to see. But They depend on Us to support, not undermine, that attitude. For me, a workable system precedes need to play. At least Ubuntu
"worked" vanilla. That's why I am still working with it. (Note I am not online on Ubuntu now. ASAIK there are no drivers for USB wireless devices on 7.04.)

N/A FROM DONPEDRODOS:
The ADD/REMOVE applications are mosttime upgraded, but applications compiled yourself you must to complile new.

But beflore screwing around, backup your existing system....in case all goes to "byte heaven".

PENGUINV: RIGHT MAN, now you are beginning to see my issue. <------- !!
And SINCE I HAVE NO APPLICATIONS TO BACK UP the following is overkill <----
An application that you can you can use to backup things is:
Quote: Simple Backup Suite for desktop use
Simple Backup Suite is a set of backend backup daemon and GNOME GUI frontends
that provide a simple yet powerful backup solution for common desktop users.
Backups can be written to local directory or remote servers using GNOME VFS technology.
. . .
PenguinV: I DONT HAVE ANY. I don't have CD-writing drive either. It looks like I will have to install another HD, which I have, if it works.

DONPEDRODOS FINISHES:
Due the fact i want also to upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04, but i still wait.
Because i read a lot of problems of people who upgraded the system.
I going to wait a month or so before i going to upgrade my system.

PENGUINV: You've given me some ideas and caused me to think. I didnt think of "problems with the upgrade", good to notice. I forgot about my "spare" (found) hard drives. That will simplify everthing. I'll simply install a second HD on the system and install it there.

PENGUINV FINISHES:
So my conclusion is that the UBUNTU 9.04 installation will wipe my hard drive or whatever partition I instal it in and that there is no other option. (Excepting installing 3 successive upgrades which contains 3 levels of peril, at least, and a lot of work.)

SOLVED. (But I wont mark it solved for a week so that people can respond.) TY.

Next post shows I learned something (but still have further to go).

[penguinv]

New solution part:

1. I found another solution. Had trouble with it and am going to post that separately.

Ubuntu said it can split about 3.2G off my 7.04 partition and install 8,04 in that. Wow, I think, that will do it for me.

(for the meanwhile. It is hard-to-believe that Ubuntu cannot copy a user account and all its files from anther Ubuntu installation. And I want that capability.)

But Ubuntu had disk problems of some kind. The error message seemed mixed up between the CD/drive? being at fault or my hard drive being at fault.
a. if it is referring to the CD, but note that the CD passed the hash test. I think the CD is good.
b. if it is referring to the hard drive, couldn't I do a scandisk or a checkdisk and mask the bad sectors. How much did it try?

And last, when I try again to install I see that the just made 3.2G sector is considered taken and it wont give me an option to reinstall on that partition but wants to take out another 3.2 chunk of hard drive. Arg. Will post this separately. Reply there.