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I am running Windows 10, and I have a ton of programs and files. I used to run Ubuntu on my old laptop that originally came with Windows Vista. I have several .exe files, and when I did originally download it a while back, I lost a lot of stuff. I'm still worried that I will lose all of my stuff, but I want Ubuntu. Should I dual boot it? I certainly don't want to, I wish to have my laptop purely Ubuntu. Please help!

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    Always back up your important files before doing any OS upgrade, installation or major change. If you're worried about losing data, you don't back up often enough.
    – Marc
    Dec 3, 2015 at 2:58

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Dual boot will preserve your files and programs, as you will be installing Ubuntu in parallel with the native OS. If you want a pure Ubuntu solution and still keep your personal files, copy them to an external hard drive first...or you will lose them. As for the programs, reinstalling them (or stuff that does the same tasks) after you install Ubuntu. Some may work via Wine, some may be unusable on a Linux-based machine.

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Aren's post is accurate. I just want to add that dual boot "should" preserve your files as long as the installer recognizes your current install and file structure. If you end up needing to manually partition to load Linux, you could very easily write over a portion of your HD that you care about...trust me on this. As mentioned, backup your files, then verify your backups on a different computer before you load the OS.

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