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Will I lose data if I make new a new installation of Ubuntu in the same partition of a previous UBUNTU distribution? I don't want to change my partitions table again.

I have installed UBUNTU 12.04 32bits in my laptop (dual boot with WIN7) and I intend to upgrade for newer version which are not allowed in the "Software Up to Date" tool. Even to UBUNTU 12.10. Nevertheles, my main objective is to install a new UBUNTU version (64 bits) using the same partitions (sda3 with ext4, and sda4 with swap) and try to share the most of the personal documents (especially those in \home, and even some configuration files) between both unix systems.

I never did this before on UBUNTU but I know that is possible for other OS (I tried once on windows and it worked without losing personal data). I think for Linux I can do it but maybe I have to set another mount point. How exactly can I do this?

And which is my best option in your opinion?

Claudia
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  • Why not backup your data and to a clean reinstall? – ThiefMaster Jan 31 '15 at 19:15
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    There are some confusing things here: "repartitioning" is something different than "formatting". Änd "upgrading" has nothing to do with both "formatting" and "repartitioning". Next: you can not upgrade to 12.10. You need to re-install (and that would be either to 14.04 or 14.10). Reinstalling you can do with (data gone) or without (data stays) formatting with (data gone) or without repartitioning. Best option: make a backup of your data, format, install 14.04/10 and restore backup. – Rinzwind Jan 31 '15 at 19:22
  • @ThiefMaster: I know that may be the right way to do it, but sometimes newer distributions are not entirely compatible, or lack some drivers, or are unstable etc... It happen to me many times, and I loose too much time to fix the problems (some still remain and I gave up). My intention is to migrate to the new version only if it has full compability with all softwares I use, has similar features and is stable. In such case I plan to uninstall the old one. Furthermore I dont have enough space on hard drive to create additional partition. – Claudia Jan 31 '15 at 19:28
  • @Rinzwind: I know the differences between the terms but my intention was to make clear that upgrades are not possible in my case: I can't upgrade to newer versions of UBUNTU due to an internal error or descontinuation of support and upgrade systems from 32 to 64 bits are not possible at all. So I have to make new instalation if I want a new system. The question is. Can I install both in the same partition and use the same swap. – Claudia Jan 31 '15 at 19:41
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    Use the same swap: YES (I currently do with Ubuntu 14.10 and Kali, both 32bit), but afaik you can NOT install two OS in one partition, I'm stunned that it is even possible to reinstall Ubuntu without losing the partition's data. – Byte Commander Jan 31 '15 at 20:45
  • Claudia, the simplest way is to make 2 backups. 1 system backup (use disk-to-image) and 1 data backup (use whatever you're usng now). Read here for more info. Then, boot from the LiveCD, format both sda3 and 4 (without repartitioning) and continue the install. If anything goes wrong during the installation or with compatibility, just restore the system backup... – Fabby Feb 05 '15 at 20:43
  • You have the record for latest acceptance ever: It took you 6 years to do this??? ;-) :D P.S. Answer upvotes just because you made me smile with this! – Fabby Mar 13 '21 at 22:37

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The simplest way is to make 2 backups:

  • 1 system backup (use http://CloneZilla.org disk-to-image)
  • 1 data backup (use whatever software you're using now).

Read here for more info.

Then, boot from the LiveCD, format both sda3 (system) and 4 (swap) (without repartitioning) and continue the install.

If anything goes wrong during the installation or if you accidentally format one of your data partitions (sda1 and 2 presumably) with compatibility, just restore the system backup...

After really bad stuff happening, restore both the system and data backup.

Community
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Fabby
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