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Tonight i will be updgrading my 32bit to 64bit. These may seem like basic questions but not my area of expertise.

Fresh install is the way, so i will be downloading from site onto USB. I will back up all my files onto a external drive, but I just wanted to check that in theory if nothing went wrong during installation then my files like word docs and downloads should still be on my computer, am i correct in my thinking here? Because as i remember when i upgraded from 10.04 to 12.04 (32 bit) everything stayed the same, docs, downloads etc

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When you do an upgrade from 10.04 to 12.04 everything was there because the OS was just upgraded. (partitions didn't get formatted) Now however , you are doing a fresh install which means your partition gets formatted. This means your data won't be there after install. (unless you have a seperate /home partition in which case you can select it and choose the option to not format it and then your data will be there).

If you only have 1 partition , or your home folder is on the same partition as / , then you will loose it as / have to be formatted during re-install. So make sure you backup your whole /home folder.

This is the reason why most of us choose to have a separate partition for /home.

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so to save transferring all of my files back across should i create a separate partition for my home before i upgrade? – Richlewis Jan 28 at 12:27
I only know how to do it during installation. I don't know if you can do it on a already installed and partitioned drive. Maybe someone knowledgeable know how to do it now before you re-install. – Mazal Jan 28 at 12:29
ok so this time i will have to trf, how do i create a partition for my home on installation so next time i don't have to backup (though i know you should always backup) – Richlewis Jan 28 at 12:30
or another thought, if i upgrade to 12.10 then i will not lose any info? – Richlewis Jan 28 at 12:55

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