Online upgrade safety

[sirius0]

Hi all,
How safe, in your experience, is it to allow the full upgrade while online using the updater? I am using "Ubuntu 8.04" LTS Hardy Heron the suggested upgrade is 10.04.3 LTS. I intend on getting pictures and docs and if possible emails backed up before I start. Has anyone succeeded in an online upgrade?
Thank you.

[Mr_JMM]

An upgrade the skips versions is very hit and miss. Lots of people have done this successfully but many have failed.

I personally would always recommend a clean install, especially when jumping versions.

If you already have a separate /home partition then this is easier. If not, now is a good time to repartition your harddrive and perform a fresh install.

[sirius0]

Yes i may just get the latest LTS Precise Pangolin and install. The next issue though is preserving emails from thunderbird though there are other threads on that.