Hi

I have an 8GB hdb with 256MB RAM.

Assume that I shall install ONLY ONE linux distro on this hdb at any given time.

It has 512MB swap, nearly 4GB home & 4GB root, 50MB /boot partition.

Suppose I have Fedora-3 right now and I want to replace it with Mepis.

1) What PRECAUTIONS do I take, so that a newer install of ANOTHER distro does not touch my personal data (saved webpages, pics, movie clips etc.)?

2) Will having a seperate home partition (with all personal files there) ensure that none of my persoanl data will be damaged no matter how mnay distros I install ONE AFTER ANOTHER REPLACING THE LAST WITH THE NEW?

3) If I do not have a seperate HOME partition but ONLY swap & root, will the new installation of any distro INVARIABLY destroy all my personal data that I've stored?

REMEMBER: ONLY ONE LINUX DISTRO. I DO NOT INTEND TO HAVE MULTIPLE DISTROS CO-EXISTING AT THE SAME TIME.

Thanks for help.

Take care
CoolBlue

having a separate home is good practice
it will be safer
the only thing to keep in mind is that different distros sometimes use different uid ranges (?),
easily solved by editing /etc/group

1)
don't setup your home partition until your sure the new distro works?

2)
in theory

3)
not necessarily

Yes, if you keep a partition separate from the root partition, your pr0n should be untouched... so to speak.