Genral Upgrade Questions

[Coda_]

So Ive been using 9.04 for over a year now, and I guess there are no more upgrades for it. So I finally decided to upgrade to the newest version of Ubuntu. I originally upgraded to 9.10, but I had a number of problems with it, and eventually just re-installed 9.04 from my disc. Anyway, I want to make sure that I upgrade correctly this time. I have a few questions:

1) I know I have to upgrade one at a time (9.04 to 9.10 to 10.04 to 10.10), do I have to back up all my saved files, or can I just upgrade, and everything stays where it is?

2) Is there anything (such as various packets installed that I may need) that I should make sure are installed?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Quackers]

Upgrading across 3 versions is a likely way to have problems, I'm afraid. In my opinion it would be better if you back up your /home folder (with the hidden files - press ctrl+h to see them) to external disk and then download and burn the 10.04 LTS .iso image to disc, then install it fresh. You can then copy back all your personal files and settings. This method would mean you would need to re-install all your programs, though.
You could also use the 10.10 version too but the 10.04 version is the Long Term Support version. I would also recommend you choose to "try Ubuntu" first to make sure that all your hardware works ok.

[uRock]

I would definitely back up your files before doing upgrades. It is better to be safe than sorry.

I would just do a clean install instead of running an upgrade three times to get to 10.10. Also, you may want to run the LiveCD of 10.10 and make sure it works well with your hardware. This way you will have a LiveCD handy if the upgrade fails.

[Coda_]

Ok, I backed up all my files, and downloaded the .iso of version 10.04. I threw it on my USB, only now I cant get it to boot. How do I access my BIOS settings?...