This is exactly why I keep a separate /home directory. You can always slap it in another system and copy it over or wipe the other partitions and reinstall and all your crap is still there. Some of your dot files may need to be deleted, but should still work with newer program versions. You shouldn't need /var unless you put stuff like your website in there or files for FTP or mail files. Since I use web mail and have FTP directory on another drive that is not a problem. I only save /home before a new system load. And I do back that up prior to reload, usually. I've only had to save it from the dead once by breathing life back into the partition table, but then I like a good resurrection every now and then.
-----Original Message----- From: On Behalf Of Jon Moss
Since Fedora Legacy Project has gone belly up, I've been rethinking what to do with the workstation my daughter (a high school senior soon to be college student) uses. It currently has FC4 installed. I'd like to move her to Ubuntu (specifically kubuntu because she likes KDE) but I'm not sure if I can "upgrade" to it from FC4. I'm going to backup all of her files and photos to a CD or DVD, but I'm afraid I'm going to miss something (and I'd rather not back up the entire hard drive if I don't have to since the OS or distro won't matter any longer).
Has anyone ever done this? Upgrade from one distro to another?
Or do I have to just wipe the hard drive and start from scratch (like I would if it had Windows XP installed)?
Happy New Year!
Jon Moss