Can I install a new distro. without formatting...?
My previous experiences from changeing from mandrake 10 to fedora back to mandriva 2006 taught me that i can not install a new distro without formating the drive that contains linux
I am asking is there is a way to avoid formatting...? Thanks. |
you can install over the top if you wish, but i don't think you want to even do that... can i be psychic and guess that you don't want to lose your /home contents? to preserve the contents across installations you should create a seperate /home partition and install over, formatting all partitions instead of that one. then mount it once you boot to the new distro and your old data will still be there. if that's not what you're asking, i'd suggest asking more detailed questions.
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i don't really know if it was formatting or another problem but losing that HDD with a bad sector with an increasing size with every reboot (ie. can not be contained) was painful so i do not want to fall in the same mistake again as i don't want to buy a new HDD every year Quote:
sorry i guess you will have to work a little bit more on your psychic skills :D but that partition idea it deserves a stop and i think i should think about it will it save my installed programs from being lost or just the data and programs that i save or download...? will it keep the programs working even after i switch to another distro...? and thank you very much for your speedy replies:) :) |
formatting a disk is just the same as writing files to it in terms of sectors and the likes... just bit flipping at the end of the day.
as for installed programs... well no they will be lost, they will not be "installed" under the new distro... *IF* for some bizarre reason yousimply leave all file systems intact and install over, then you have two distro with to file system layouts, meaning some old obselete files will be left knocking around, which may or may not be used by the new system depending on all manor of thigns. there is no way ever there is a logic in doing this. |
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did you mean that formatting had nothing to do with my old HDD? and by that you mean that there is no harm to be done to my current one so i can format whatever i like with no fear (i am entering a phase of trying several distros (slackware,suse,mepis, and i do not know what else) :) just making sure that there is nothing to lose. or you mean a completely different thing that i didn't get it's 12:25 am here and i usually get up at 6:30 please pardon be if I am silly my eyes are begging for sleep:D Thanks,Good-Night and i will see you tomorrow.(I mean today after a few hours... it's morning already) |
the sectors on a disk do not know if they are being changed due to a format or changed doue to a text file being saved on them. you can format until your hearts content. formatting under linux normally doesn't do a full bit by bit format anyway, just sets up the journals and inodes and such. it doesn't carefully write to every single block on the partition.
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by any chance it wasnt a 20 gb drive or less that you had the problems with last year...
if it was then it sounds like you used ext3 on it...that can kill the older drives...like early 20 gb and smaller...ext3 on later drives is no problem and linux is not as aggressive when formatting as what windows can be...so dont dispare...but then the more work a drive does the more it ages, so find the distro you wish to get right and work on it till its what you want...they can be altered to some fantastic extremes... |
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Thank you very much for your replies. |
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