Doing a clean install

[Hein]

Nigel,

You can see the details of all your disks and where they are mounted by 
printing the /etc/fstab file.

Or install du  and run the command in  terminal and print.

When I do a clean install, I backup my visible files in /home ( docs, music, 
etc), and the data files under .kde ( hidden files under .kde/share/apps) which 
is the mail directory, contacts ( std.vcf), schedule ( std.ics). I also leave 
them in my /home directory to ease installation and not copy gb's of data.Make 
sure you can see the hidden files every time to ensure you are copying 
everything required especially in the mail directory.

I delete all other files in my home directory (normal and hidden) because it 
contains some old configuration data which is not replaced when a new 
installation is done. That is the way I do it to avoid a /home format. If you 
can backup all your data files and format it is probably still the best.

However, you need to determine which of the visible files and hidden files you 
need to keep which is undoubtably different from mine to ensure you do not 
loose any data you would like to keep.

A clean install is always better than a upgrade in my opinion and as shown by 
most of the comments on the list regarding things not working.
9.10 is great and works really well in my small network of 8 computers.

Hein