this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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The title says it all, I'd like to switch my operating system and preserve most of my files. Any other info I should know before the move would be nice as well.

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[–] UmbraTemporis@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 8 months ago

If you're frequently distro-hopping, I recommend using a seperate /home partition. I did that before I settled down, I can't begin to describe how convenient it was (especially if you use Flatpak).

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Copy them to an external drive or another computer, copy them back after.

Chances are you're gonna wanna wipe the partition table on your switch over so I'd just copy them out then back in. No point over complicating things.

[–] flakusha 2 points 8 months ago

Just to add: some folders' files might need modifications in the new system, e.g. .config/

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 points 8 months ago

Yea, I was gonna say, have ya not heard of backups ? but this is better.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just remove every directory except for /home/. Then install the new OS without repartitioning.

[–] Luci@lemmy.ca 11 points 8 months ago

I'd be careful, not every distro plays nice when you do this. In my experience at least.

[–] scratchandgame@lemmy.ml 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

WHY THERE ARE NOT.

Please have a partition for /home. In fact, you need partition for /usr, /var,.. too

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why? Serious question. I kind of understand /home, but why the others? I used to do it a bit, but now I don't bother. I never knew how big to make each partition, and have had problems where something like /boot fills up and freezes the system.