I'm thinking of installing Mint 18.1. Don't want to do a clean install, but I don't want to constantly have to choose which OS I want to use. Is there a way to install 18.1, not lose my files and use it as the only OS?

yes.
1) identify where your files are, move them all into one partition
2) install, but leave that partition alone during partitioning

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Use Update Manager?

My hard drive is basically one large partition. When I installed Mint17, I let Linux do what it wanted (conflicting-outdated info for partitions) So, why couldn't I install 18 on it's very own partition-by itself and run it from there? Would that make installing 19 easier?

because, as you said, your hard drive is "all one big partition"(*), so you'd have to repartition it, which would result in data loss.

(*) i don't quite believe that.
please fire up gparted and confirm.

What? Where?

Where is the "simple" when you keeping changing up?

output please.

Theoretically, you could do that but before anyone tries to give you specific advice you would need to post some details. You could shrink the one large partition by using GParted which will be on the Mint installation DVD/flash drive and create unallocated space on which to install the new Mint. You should then be able to access/boot either system. Anytime you are making changes to partitions there is a possibility of losing data so do a backup.

Apparently, this is more complicated than I thought. I did a clean install of Linux Mint. Page 16 of the Mint User manual is exactly what I installed.

fdisk results:

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4bf49d73

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1953525167 976762583+ ee GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

--------------------
Can't copy Gparted, but looks like this:

/dev/sda1--fat32--/boot/efi--512MB--4.39MB--507.61MB--boot
/dev/sda2--ext4--/--915.09GB--418.61GB--496.48GB
/dev/sda3--linux-swap--15.92GB--4kB--15.92GB

so it sounds like you solved your problem (clean install) yet there is still some problem?
you're going to have to explain.

i know that it is common to ask help seeking people to do some homework etc., but imho it is a little presumptious to ask the same of those providing help.
in other words, what's on page 16? what did you do?

now this is weird because

a) the outputs seem to say 2 different things - the first says there's indeed only 1 partition (unlikely), the second says there are 3 (likely)

and

b) when i enter the command provided by habitual 2 posts up, i get very different-looking output.

anyhow, you also have an efi partition there --- do you even need one if you're not dual booting with windows?

First of all, given the seemingly limited amount of space, the value of pasting the entire User manual page here, wasn't going to be as productive as the tech info.

Second, I don't know where the efi came from, I didn't put it there, I've never touched the partitions after the initial clean install. And I certainly don't dual boot, I wanted to avoid that.

And, lastly, I doubt that this thread is going to get me anywhere and I'm on my own.

so it would seem indeed. good luck!

The common practice in situations such as this is to simply post a link to the site/page which doesn't take up a lot of space.

If you have an efi partition which the info you posted indicates, then it was put there when you installed Mint. The other possibility would be if you or someone had previously installed another OS using UEFI. So to install Mint 18 alongside it and not have boot problems, you would need to install Mint 18 EFI also. First obviously, shrink the current partition(s) to create unallocated space or else create another partition before installing on which to install Mint 18.

The fdisk output doesn't accurately reflect the partitions as indicated in the messages because you are using GPT. The GParted output is likely more accurate.

*IF* you decide to -erase the whole disk-,
try (in a dvd/usb .iso terminal, to zero WHOLE drive):
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

As soon as I finished installing Mint17, I checked the partitions to be sure that it looked like what the manual said (2 partitions). Perfect and didn't have any problems, so no reason to double-check after that. Some months later, I did a test drive of M18 and I noticed that my laptop refers to my DVD drive as EFI, confusing to say the least. Was never sure exactly what that meant. In any case, I have an experimental laptop that I'm going to use to work this out.

One interesting side note, my other laptop (also using Linux 17) does not have the Fat32 partition, according to Gparted. Still shows just the 2 partitions installed as per the installation manual.