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I had originally Windows installed on my system.Then I parititioned my C: drive and installed Ubuntu 14.04. I want o upgrade Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04. While backing up files in the Ubuntu, should I also backup files on my Windows drives which are mounted on Ubuntu.

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  • If you partitioned your C: drive, Windows does not exist anymore. You don't need to backup Windows drives, because the Ubuntu system won't write here. Ubuntu 16.04 is quite old, why not use 18.04?
    – Powerriegel
    Dec 15, 2019 at 12:23
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    A regular full backup is always a good idea. Especialy before bigger changes on the system. For example I've shortly upgraded an system from Win7 to Win10, after that the two USB hubs died within 1 week. It could also be the hard disk, even if there is no direct connection.
    – LupusE
    Dec 15, 2019 at 12:23
  • @Corni yes I would like to get there finally. From what I read, its best to hop through LTE versions and not jump. So, I want to get to 16.04 and then 18.04.
    – julianff
    Dec 15, 2019 at 12:32
  • @LupusE ok will keep that in mind
    – julianff
    Dec 15, 2019 at 12:33
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    You should always backup.
    – Rinzwind
    Dec 15, 2019 at 12:38

2 Answers 2

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Using Ubuntu's release-upgrade feature will not touch unmounted drives. It also won't touch your Windows install on mounted drives. It won't delete your data stored in your /home directory. It often won't touch data stored in other places.

A backup of Windows files is not necessary...when everything works as expected.

We don't know your setup, or what customizations you have made that might prevent a release-upgrade from working as expected. In that rare case, a reinstall might be necessary. A reinstall DOES risk overwriting your Windows system if you mistakenly select the wrong option. Humans make lots of mistakes. Note that this is not a single-failure, but a chain-of-failures that results in data loss and a very bad day.

This is why we generally recommend a full backup of all storage before upgrading any OS on the machine. Ask yourself: "If my data were lost by one of these unlikely errors or mistakes, how much time and/or money would I be willing to expend to restore it?" Whatever that amount is, a backup is likely much cheaper.

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Doing a full backup is a good idea, upgrading to ubunu 16.04 or even 18.04 won't remove your data from NTFS drives, you also can unmount them using umount command. linux recognizes windows files and boot by default and doesn't destroy them. you can always check for automounted drives in the fstab file - /etc/fstab

How to make partitions mount at startup?

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    So, I think my Windows drives are by default unmounted on Ubuntu because Right clicking on those drives gives me an option to mount them. So, I was assuming that they wont be affected by the upgrade if they are not mounted. Is my assumption wrong?
    – julianff
    Dec 15, 2019 at 13:23
  • if you want to check for automounted drives check fstab file, nano /etc/fstab
    – Ahmed elesawy
    Dec 15, 2019 at 17:53

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