I'm currently running Linux Mint and I'm thinking about switching to a different distro. Is there a way to do this without losing my home folder? Just to give you some context, I have a 250GiB SSD with about 200GiB of videos and movies stored on it, so I really want to keep those safe during the transition.
5 Answers
One straightforward way is to back up your home directory and all its contents to an external drive or similar storage. Then, after installing your new OS, you can boot from a live USB and transfer your files back into your home directory.
Just remember, no matter how careful you are, any installation or partitioning can risk data loss. So always back up your files before making any changes!
You'll also want to ensure you're installing the OS with EFI and root configured properly, while also mounting your /home. This keeps your files intact as long as it's not formatted.
If you don’t have a separate /home partition, you might need to create one first. You can shrink your existing partitions to make some space, then create a new partition and copy your files over.
If you have a separate /home partition, just make sure you don't format it during the new installation. If you don't have one, using rsync to back up your /home directory to an external drive is smart. After installing the new distro, you can use rsync again to restore your files.
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