How do I reinstall older version of ubuntu?

Question

A friend of mine installed Ubuntu on my Samsung N210 netbook and it worked very well. It was much faster than the Windows 7 (which is still installed but partitioned).

Ubuntu suggested I upgrade and I did but now it proves this version might be far too much for such a small computer and it is incredibly slow to do anything. How can reinstall the older version? I think the safest way may be to uninstall Ubuntu and then reinstall via the windows 7 which still exists but I don't know how to do that... Any suggestions or comments would be really appreciated.

Thank you!

Answer 1

As guntbert said, you would need to know which version your friend was on. If you can't figure that out, I would make a backup and install the next oldest version from the current. There is a list of Ubuntu releases here if that helps jog your friend's memory a bit.

This link will allow you to download 1 version behind the current (which happens to be 12.04 L[ong]T[erm]S[upport]). There are ways to get copies of older versions, but I would stick to trying this first.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

First of all grab an installation iso of older version from HERE, or if you want to go for a much older version then find one HERE.
Prepare a bootable USB out of this ISO file using a tool such as unetbootin or burn it onto a CD, and boot.

Now when you get to the installation screen, depending on the version of Ubuntu you are going to install, you might be asked to select the mode of installation, If you can see an option to replace Current Ubuntu installation(Guided) then its ok to pick it up, Otherwise you have to select "Something Else" and then "Guided partitioning" then you can select the partitions to install Ubuntu on, be careful not to overwrite the windows installation, most likely you will find partitions formatted with ext file-system, you can safely install ubuntu on them.

If your older installation mount home from separate partition then you have an option to use this partition without formatting and preserver your current configurations.