How to Re-Install Suse 11 without loosing data
 

I am fairly new to Linux. I have been using OpenSuse 11 for the last six months. couple of days ago when trying to install the NVIDIA driver the Xserver failed. I have been trying various things many kind and patient people have been telling me to do. I am running out of time as I have an assignment to finish by end of this week and I have no back up.

How can I re install Suse 11 with the original DVD without loosing my emails and the data. If there is a way I can take back ups please tell me. The only way I can access the pc is through a like a dos screen and I do not know the commands to copy files to dvd.

Cheers!

Well, there are commands to burn things to a CD/DVD from the command line, but if you're looking for quick-and-simple, a regular USB thumbdrive should do the trick as well. It'll probably also auto-mount, and be visible under /media, and you can just copy your file(s) to it, with the 'cp' command (do a "man cp" and it'll tell you the options).

If you want to back up your whole home directory, try something like this:

"cp -R /your/home/directory/* /media/<whatever thumbdrive mount point>",

They're very cheap these days, and good for quick backups like this.

boot your live cd create another partition copy your /home/username/data then reinstall on the old partition then copy data from new partition to the old. or boot live cd and copy data to usb reinstall.
or reboot and in text as root or sudo type nvidia-xorgconf then then type startx. or run this from the console saX2 this should put you back to our original drivers.

I cannot see the pendrive in the /media directory. How will I know which mount point to write to?

How do I access a directory with spaces in the middle. 'My Documents & Files

The /media directory is usually empty. Anything that gets auto-mounted will show up as a directory in there, that's the mount point. If you don't see anything, try doing (as root) "mount". It'll show what devices are mounted. If all you see is your hard drive (probably /dev/sda), do a "ls /dev/sdb*". If you see anything, that's your pendrive. Again, as root, type in "mount /dev/sdb<whatever number> /media", like "mount /dev/sdb1 /media". That's it, the pendrive is now mounted.

To get EVERYTHING, as I said earlier, look at the options for the "cp" command. The "cp -R" will get everything, but be safe; run it as "cp -R /path/to/home/directory/* /media", then "cp -R /path/to/home/directory/.* /media". That'll get the hidden files/directories as well.

Drakeo gave some good advice too. Take your pick.