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Reinstalling Linux over old install

J

jamesdsimone

Golden Member
I have an old dual boot WinXP/Ubuntu system that I want to update Linux on. I don't want to bother with updating Windows. The Ubuntu is old, version 10.0 I think, and not updatable. The install is side by side. Can I just install over the old Ubuntu install or should I uninstall it first? Also, I want to switch to Mint
 
I'll admit I do not have any experience with that exact scenario. But I think it *could* work. What I would do (and is standard procedure for these kinds of things) is make a clone of the install on new media, then play with that instead of potentially borking the original. Newer storage should be faster and it's pretty cheap these days as well. Then you'll still have your original in case it doesn't work out the first time around.
 
(Generally, you don't uninstall an operating system.) You can erase an OS, or you can install over it. To do so successfully, you'll need to understand disk partitions and Linux filesystems.

It's not something I could easily generalize, or guess exactly how it's currently set up. To inspect the current partitioning and to understand what the install looks like, you have several options:
  • Boot into installed Linux OS
  • Boot a Live DVD of the new OS
  • Boot to a partitioning tool such as Macrium Reflect Free, or GParted
Once you understand the partitioning scheme, you can install Linux Mint. Traditionally you use command-line tools to view configuration, but modern desktop environments will have equivalent GUI tools as well (i.e. gnome-disk-utility).

If you don't have any data to preserve and are willing to nuke the existing operating systems, then installing a new OS will be somewhat easier.
 
The current install of WinXP is not really important I just don't want take the time to reinstall and configure a fresh copy of windows. The computer is completely non critical so decided to skip the backing up of the partition and went ahead and uninstalled the old Ubuntu install with CCleaner. Rebooted and the Linux GRUB was gone and booted to WinXP fine. I'll download and install the latest version of Mint and do a fresh side by side install.
 
Most Linux installers will format the partition before installing, so it will work just make sure you have nothing important on there.
 
I'm most used to the traditional Debian text-mode installer where you manually partition your disk. Even granting new GUI installers are more intelligent, the question is how intelligent?

His old disk is using some MBR scheme, which is limited to 4 primary partitions. Does the existing install use extended partitions? Ubuntu 10.x is very old, so I don't know if the default was LVM or not.

There are enough variables here that the end user has three general options:
  1. Nuke everything and install from scratch (he loses Windows XP, no loss). The installer will choose reasonable defaults.
  2. Understand the current partitioning scheme and adjust it accordingly. The simplest case would be a single primary partition for Linux, and using a swap file. No need for multiple filesystems like the bad old days.
  3. Ask a Linux sysadmin
 
manly said:
I'm most used to the traditional Debian text-mode installer where you manually partition your disk. Even granting new GUI installers are more intelligent, the question is how intelligent?

His old disk is using some MBR scheme, which is limited to 4 primary partitions. Does the existing install use extended partitions? Ubuntu 10.x is very old, so I don't know if the default was LVM or not.

There are enough variables here that the end user has three general options:
  1. Nuke everything and install from scratch (he loses Windows XP, no loss). The installer will choose reasonable defaults.
  2. Understand the current partitioning scheme and adjust it accordingly. The simplest case would be a single primary partition for Linux, and using a swap file. No need for multiple filesystems like the bad old days.
  3. iAsk a Linux sysadmin
Click to expand...
I didn't want to nuke the drive just so I could have access to drives bigger than 2TB. I'm just going to be using the system to backup files from my network. Deleting Ubuntu was simple. Installed Mint 21.2. WinXP is installed to C: drive of course. I installed Mint to the D: drive. Everything installed pretty seamlessly. I had hunt around the BIOS to get the system to boot from the D: drive but once I did that it booted fine to GRUB. Mint is up and running and it works really well. My last install was 18. Sound worked out of the box. Networking is still a bit wonky.
 
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