NegativeSpace Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) I'm not impressed with Xubuntu, and it's time I start to learn to use BT5 so I'm switching. Th eplan is to get rid of Xubuntu and install BT5 in its place but I've never replaced one distro with another before so I'm looking for advice. I've read a few 'tutorials' on various websites but none of them carry exact specific instructions, as in, most assume a certain level of previous experience. I have installed several flavors of Linux in the past, under various conditions, but I havent replaced one with another on the same partition. Is there anything, no matter how obvious it may be, that I need to consider before I attempt this? I will be replacing Xubuntu with BackTrack 5 on a netbook that also runs Windows 7 with GRUB. Should I format the two partitions that are used by Xubuntu, and then run the BackTrack installer and use that to create two new partitions for BackTrack to install to? Or should I completely delete those two partitions and then use the BackTrack installer to create two new partitions? Are there any steps that I need to take in order to make sure my MBR still includes the right data to keep Windows bootable? I would be glad to read a readymade tutorial that actually includes instructions specific to this process, but I haven't been able to find one of those so far. They are all written to tell you how to install Linux onto a machine that runs Windows only, and not how to replace one distro with another. Edited April 9, 2012 by NegativeSpace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 If you want to keep your Windows installation: When you go through the wizard for installing BT5r2, you can manually edit partitions and can delete the ones related to xubuntu. Then you can have it manage the install of just the 'free space' for BT5 which should keep your Windows partition in tact. It will also auto-scan when installing GRUB again and find your Windows and BT5(ubuntu 10.04) parititions. Hope this answers your question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamo Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 And remember, when you remove partition containing your Xubuntu installation, it will delete all data in there, so have your data somewhere else. And it might be good idea to have all important data backed up, in case you remove wrong partition (windows is on NTFS, and ubuntu on ext4(or 3) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 And remember, when you remove partition containing your Xubuntu installation, it will delete all data in there, so have your data somewhere else. And it might be good idea to have all important data backed up, in case you remove wrong partition (windows is on NTFS, and ubuntu on ext4(or 3) Valid point. I always do that step and forget that not everyone is on the same thinking path as me. But yes, make sure to back up any data you would like to keep or it will be lost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 (edited) If you want to keep your Windows installation: When you go through the wizard for installing BT5r2, you can manually edit partitions and can delete the ones related to xubuntu. Then you can have it manage the install of just the 'free space' for BT5 which should keep your Windows partition in tact. It will also auto-scan when installing GRUB again and find your Windows and BT5(ubuntu 10.04) parititions. Hope this answers your question. It helps to know that I should delete the partitions used by Xubuntu, and I'm not worried about losing any data related to Xubuntu. One thing I dont want to do is use the remainder of the free space for BT5 partitons because the space will add up to soemthing like 270GB. The BT5 installer asks me to either install BT and leave other partitions alone, or to manually specify the partitions, so I guess this is the part where I should just delete the Xubuntu partitions. I guess I'm just going to go for it and deal with any problems that might come up! Edited April 9, 2012 by NegativeSpace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 Have a question. I have chosen to slightly resize and format my one EXT4 partition, but I don't know how to choose the mount point. I assume that it should be / but that's really an educated guess. Also, should I format the swap partition, and if so, am I correct in assuming that its mount point should be swap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 So everything went well. Now the question is, who wants to be my BackTrack Linux mentor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegativeSpace Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Still need a hacker mentor! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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