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Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

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littlebigman
Posts: 23
Joined: 2008-01-16 21:30

Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

#1 Post by littlebigman »

Hello

The drive currently has a single EXT4 partition with data on it I'd like to keep.

Is there a way to have the netinstall installer just use this partition and install Debian there without touching the data?

The partitioning step doesn't make this obvious, so I'd rather double-check before going ahead.

Thank you.

littlebigman
Posts: 23
Joined: 2008-01-16 21:30

Re: Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

#2 Post by littlebigman »

Reading the thread currently above "Possible to re-install Debian 8.7 without destroying data?", I won't take the risk, and just copy the data in another computer, and have Debian use the whole disk and create multiple partitions (/, /home, /tmp, and swap).

littlebigman
Posts: 23
Joined: 2008-01-16 21:30

Re: Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

#3 Post by littlebigman »

For others' benefit: When choosing the manual method, you can choose to install Debian in an existing partition, and tell the installer not to format it. It worked like a charm (although it's still a good idea to back up data onto another drive, just in case.)
Last edited by littlebigman on 2017-03-27 22:07, edited 1 time in total.

horgh
Posts: 58
Joined: 2008-12-13 10:28

Re: Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

#4 Post by horgh »

I think whether it works depends on what is on there. I tried this recently over top a partition that had an existing (but heavily broken) Debian installation. The installer couldn't complete.

Possibly nuking directories other than /home would have worked, but I ended up formatting anyway.

littlebigman
Posts: 23
Joined: 2008-01-16 21:30

Re: Can netinstall preserve data in existing partition?

#5 Post by littlebigman »

Thanks for the tip.

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