how to reinstall linux on the smae HDD
 

hi
I have installed Mint 14 onto my external HDD.First I used GParted on windows 7 and then I installed Mint Cinnamon via Live USB..but this time I would like to install Mint XFCE instead of Mint Cinnamon .so I want to uninstall Cinnamon.How can I do..

I had created three parts called home ,swap and root..I only use the part root.the other parts are empty.so wht is the easiest way to install another distro onto a disk which is already parted.Should I use Gpart again? should I use format only "root" part via LiveUSB.

I am very confused it toook one week to figure out how to creat root,swap and home parts and install linux.
thanks

why on earth would you change your entire distro just for a different desktop?? Just install both of them at the same time.

All these different versions of distro are just so misleading, you can just install whatever DE you want, as many DE's as you want, in the same OS.

calm down mate..I know what you mean.but cinnamon has not worked properly on my system and after I tried to install/update nvidia drivers and kernel and virtualbox, now it turned into totally wierd os

If you want to install another disro instead of a desktop, simply opt to manually configure the partitions, and select the 3 partitions you have in the installer.

It is a good idea to give /home its own partition. Then don't format it during a fresh install. I rename my $HOME directory before a reinstall and copy files I want to keep afterwards. Different distros can share the same /home partition. Sometimes you want different user directories under /home to prevent a dueling distros situation. However you can have the same user directory if you have several desktops installed.

well just run the installer as normally then, you don't need to do ANYTHING special at all.

Persaonlly I'd suggest fixing the current OS though, can't be that hard.

My opinion is that acid_kewpie is on the right track. First; install XFCE, then remove Cinnamon. If your system is still "weird", then consider re-installing.

And what is totally weird? Provide some details. It may be easier to fix than you think.

I agree with the above two posts, just install XFCE on the current installation.

Just a tip on completely removing Cinnamon: look at it's dependencies, and remove those packages. Of course, look carefully at what's being removed to ensure you do not want to remove something else you want accidentally.