Question fresh install

[Brian Wootton]

On 30/09/10 19:21, kubuntu-users-request at lists.ubuntu.com wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> >  
>> >  I have a production machine that was my first-ever 100% linux machine. I
>> >  started with Kubuntu 8.04 and during the past two years I have just
>> >  upgraded the OS and now I run with 10.04.1., KDE 4.5.1.
>> >  
>> >  All is fine but due to the fact that this was my 'first-ever-machine' with
>> >  linux (now my whole office with 7 PCs is with Kubuntu), I was using it to
>> >  experiment everything that I wanted to try.  As I am not expert, I found
>> >  out that after two years it started to work rather slow. For example, the
>> >  login takes about 1,5-2 minutes, after opening Kontact, I need to wait for
>> >  about 5-8 minutes for some disk-work that blocks everything, etc.
>> >  
>> >  So I decided to do a fresh install soon after 10.10 is available with /home
>> >  on a separate partition.  My question is what should I do to preserve all
>> >  my work on that machine (which is my primary office production machine)?
>> >  I do back-ups every week.  It is obvious that I will need to copy back all
>> >  files from my Documents, Pictures and all the rest visible directories
>> >  under /home. Also to follow some of the instruction to migrate my
>> >  mails/addresses/calendar entries into the new install.
>> >  
>> >  What else?  Any advice that will make my life easier is appreciated.
>>      
> AFAIK, IMHO, you need to backup the entire Home directory, hidden files
> included, in which all settings are stored.
>
> Regards,
> -- Valter R
You might also look to see if you have a /opt directory - I have some
applications that install themselves here by default.
I always install onto an empty HD or partition, never do an upgrade.
And then copy only /home directories back onto the new system.
The 'dot' files(invisible files and directories) I'm very, very careful to
restore only those that I need - only mail, mail addresses, bookmarks
for instance.
  If I find any application not working how I want, I look at the relevant
setup file in the backup, compare it with what the new install has set
in, and edit the new setup file piecemeal. I find it very dangerous to
blanket restore all the 'dot' files, too many have caused chaos in the 
past.
brian