How to keep my data when install new ubuntu

[pedro2011]

Hello,

I am using ubuntu 8.04. Now, I want to install ubuntu 11. When I install ubuntu 11 my data will be lost or not? How to keep my data when install ubuntu 11? Please tell me soon.

Thank you in advance.

[dino99]

the safest way is to have a /home partition

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10161428&postcount=2

so if your actual installation have a dedicated /home partition, then you can safely format the / (root) partition to install a new distro by declaring /home partition but without formatting it of course.

[roger_1960]

Hi

As with any clean install or upgrade (in your case an install as you cannot upgrade from 8.04 to 11.04 or 11.10 directly) you should back up your data to an external drive or USB stick (or cloud even) before you start. You could install a backup pprogram such as deja dup or sbackup to help you do this. Read up on it before starting!

See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem/SimpleBackupSuite to start with.