Upgrade but save /Home

[Don]

This is probably a bonehead question (and for that I'm over-qualified). My laptop is running 18.04. I want to upgrade it to 20.04. The root directory and /Home directory are on different partitions. If I do a fresh install of 20.04 but leave the partition sizes unchanged and do not reformat /Home's partition, will my files (including hidden files) still be there?

Thanks.

[jglen490]

Yes. i do it all the time. Select the existing / partition, select the Change button, select to set it as /, and select to Format. Select the /home partition, select the Change button, select to set it as /home, DO NOT Format. Leave the sizes for each alone, save the changes, make sure the location for the boot files is correct (either MBR for an ms-dos partition, or the ESP for EFI booting), and press on with installation. Please make sure you backup your data and files on /home, FIRST , you never know if something goes wrong.

Every time I've done this, /home stays the way it should, Thunderbird finds the mail directory and links up with th e mailboxes, and FF still sees my bookmarks. With a clean install, chances are you will need to reinstall some programs. To me, this is the easiest way to go between LTS versions, and LTS is all I ever do.

[Qqmike]

Well, Don, I suspect there's plenty of bone-head qualifiers around here. I've been at this since ~2007, and have wondered about the same thing. Theory is one thing (which you clearly got down pretty good), practice could be another deal. jglen490's explanation is the best -- excellent and clear. (Tempted to play with it, but I'm one of those guys who zeros-out the entire drive (with dd function) and starts from scratch, every time. It keeps you young doing stuff like that ;-) ) Nice OP question for many members around here, with a clear, straight answer from jglen490.

[jglen490]

Thank you. Qqmike.

[Don]

jglen490,
Thanks so much. It is remarkably clear now. I, too, only do LTS versions. As for backups, I have everything of value backed up in at least three different places. I'm grateful for the help.

[oshunluvr]

As Admin of the Bonehead clan, I feel that anyone who is making double or triple backups isn't much of a bonehead. So watch yourself or you may be kicked out of the clan!