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I have a very basical question to ask on the everyday use of the Ubuntu system.

I plan to migrate from a version* to another, but before that I would like to be sure if it is possible to save what has been set and that so that works properly, before doing so.

Putting the question in an another way around :

It is necessary to wonder about those points when Upgrading or it is just necessary as an Backup in case of an Upgraded System thas has gone wrong?

Thanks in advance.

*12.10 QQ >> 13.04 RR

3 Answers 3

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You should ALWAYS backup files you deem important. Regardless if we are talking about upgrading.

Upgrading can go wrong at any given time and it is not always the installer that goes bad. A power failure in the middle of upgrading can be the end of that installation.

I myself have my system set up such that my personal files (read all the directories in /home/$USER/) are on another disc so I can happily format my main installation and /home without worrying. For me downloading re-installing goes a lot quicker than upgrading (takes about 15 minutes to re-install once I start and another 10 minutes to install all I need but at that point I can already use my notebook).

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  • +1 for the first row. You never know when the disk is failing.
    – Rmano
    Jan 20, 2014 at 16:17
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Following the offcial release upgrade path through the Update Manager or command line do-release-upgrade should not do any harm to your data in your home directory. I continuously upgraded one of my boxes since 9.10. and never had any data loss.

But

We do hear of people having issues during or after an upgrade. So even if I was never faced with these personally I always perfom a backup before I start the upgrade. This is the recommended way to secure our precious data.

Please also note, that Ubuntu 13.04 reaches it's end of life this month. Ubuntu 12.10 will be supported until April, but you will not have an upgrade path to a newer release by then. After January 2014 you will not be able to upgrade to or upgrade from Ubuntu 13.04. Therefore it is recommended you now also upgrade to Ubuntu 13.10. (after the upgrade to 13.04. was a success).

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If you're concerned about losing data like documents, music, videos, ebooks, and so forth, upgrading is very unlikely to destroy such personal data, even if the upgrade ends up going badly.

The reason for this is what while an upgrade might go wrong and leave your Ubuntu system unusable, you could then boot from a live CD/DVD/USB and retrieve your files. Upgrading carries some risk of breaking your OS installation, but there's no reason to think it carries an elevated risk of deleting or otherwise damaging your documents.

Of course there is always a risk of hard disk failure, or you deleting your documents by accident, or a severe bug or security intrusion producing data loss. While I strenuously doubt any of these risks are made higher in an upgrade than they already are, it is with equal emphasis that I say, the other answer are right, it is important to keep backups at all times, whether or not you are upgrading.

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