Installing Ubuntu 24 w/o erasing???

[spencer2]

So; long time Ubuntu user who has installed multiple Ubuntus over nearly 20ish years.

I did the dist-upgrade from U22, got a message that there was an error on the install & I've been stuck since.

I've tried multiple recovery modes & multiple old option in the boot menu & every time I just get the loading screen -- even when booting old versions that should be U22 & not U24. I do have other Ubuntu OS'es on other partitions; so I went to other partitions to try & find a few key files to save -- and while gpartd does see the primary partition; it does not have an icon in my system menu.

So, I've made a Ubuntu 24 boot USB & am trying to install it on my primary partition & for some reason I don't feel like I see the option to install the OS on top of the current partition w/o erasing the disk. I feel like in the past, there has been an option to install on top of what is already present: essentially like a dist upgrade.

If I had to choose between a fresh OS that doesn't erase the files or fixing whatever went wrong w/ my distribution upgrade; I'd rather just use the USB for the fresh install -- but either is fine. My keepas database is on the gunked up partition that failed to upgrade correctly (as well as a handful of other files that I'd really rather not lose).

Pretty please; what am I missing in either my installation that wants to erase data instead of upgrading distribution OR how can I fix whatever went wrong w/ my upgrade.

*** Edit: when going through the install process, I'm only getting 2 options (erase & manual); I don't have the "install ubuntu alongside" option in the set up. I'm pretty sure that option is the one that I'm used to seeing in most USB install. ***