I would like to know that if i am using the older version of any linux distro and want to update it to a new & latest version then what can i do here ?

Do i need to uninstall the older version and install the new version ? In this way, the data present in the system may get lost !!!!

Or is there any other way to update the linux distro to a new version without the chance of data being lost ?

Thanks

Most distribution provide upgrade path. This is distribution specific, not standardized. Ubuntu and derivative have a button on top of the update-manager application. Aptitude or apt-get dist-upgrade also work, but are not advised anymore. Arch and Gentoo have rolling release, so new packages are made available just as regular security/bugfixes updates. Some distribution also have "offline" upgrade using the CD/DVD.

As with all upgrades, including Microsoft Windows, always backup your data, there is always a possibility of something going wrong in the process.

Hi there,

For may Linux distros it is possible to upgrade without loosing all your data. Your question is difficult to answer without specifics, though. Which distro are you talking about, and what version are you currently running?

Regards

There is no chance of your data getting lost if you have good backups.

Most distributions provide an upgrade path. Please tell us your distribution and we will point you in the right direction.

If it is a production/mission-critical machine then you would be wise to test the update on a non-production machine first.

I am talking for generally used distros like redhat,ubuntu,fedora.

Currently i am using latest version of backtrack but if i need to upgrade in the future then what will i do ?

So i am asking this question !!

I am not a BackTrack user, but I understand it is in many ways an atypical distro. If they support release upgrades, it is probably documented on their website and/or forums? Don't follow instructions for Red Hat or Fedora! There is no "one size fits all" solution for every distro.

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/index.php/FAQ
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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In ubuntu, it always shows this list of new updates and at the top they always show to upgrade to new version.
via commands :
sudo apt-get upgrade works well, I did the same on my laptop.

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Regardless of the way your distro performs an upgrade to a newer version, you should have backups. So I'll second snowpine's "There is no chance of your data getting lost if you have good backups"

What would you do if you experience a HD crash or wipe files by accident? Or your machine gets stolen?

PS The fact that one might have terabytes of data is no excuse not to back it up; as my signature states, your data is not important to you if you don't make backups. Let's add here that you should also verify your backups if you're serious about it.

Isn't that supposed to be sudo apt-get dist-upgrade or similar?

My 'automatic' upgrade from 8.04LTS to 10.04LTS went terribly wrong, by the way, and I had to install 10.04LTS from scratch. Data was not affected as it was on a separate partition.

Nope, 'dist-upgrade' is (perhaps somewhat confusingly) for getting the latest updates for your current release.

For Ubuntu, you can follow these instructions to do a release upgrade:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes

Your experience is, unfortunately, somewhat typical: many Ubuntu users find a fresh reinstall is less buggy than a release upgrade.

While Backtrack is "based on Ubuntu" I do not know whether the same release upgrade procedure applies.

Arjun - I see that you're a Fedora user. You may want to check this out.

My 6.06 to 8.04 went smooth Then I started playing with snmp (installed some stuff from the repos) and when it was time to upgrade again, it went wrong with those packages. Warnings occurred that the system might be unstable which was basically an understatement