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Yes, I've messed up with Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS and need to reinstall. I have my several partitions: Windows, Ubuntu, the '/home' for my Ubuntu personal data, and 'swap'.

(1) I am unsure if I need to DELETE my previous Ubuntu root partition and CREATE a new root partition using the same memory. I was confused because I saw also the option of "change" in addition of "delete".

(2) Will it recognize my previous /home and swap partitions?

Thank you in advance, and happy new year.

Genis
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    You have to use Something Else and select the current /home, but DO NOT check the format box. If you have swap partition and ESP, it auto finds those partitions, but now it defaults to swap file. But if you want swap file, you have to select swap partition & change to do not use. I think if you do not check format box on / it will save some of the data like installed applications. Those should be in your normal backup anyway. But any system wide settings in /etc will normally be overwritten with defaults. – oldfred Jan 01 '22 at 23:22
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    You're rather vague on specifics; as we don't know any release details, nor if you're asking about server for both? server & desktop? or both desktop? It's up to you and you don't need for format any partitions (esp. if desktop) & that's a QA-test install I use regularly; switching between releases for a destkop system & have the system auto-reinstall my manually installed packages & not touch my music.... But that may not apply as we don't know any specifics as to product, release, nor what packages you have installed (my QA tests only involve Ubuntu repository packages; not 3rd party..) – guiverc Jan 01 '22 at 23:28
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    Does this answer your question? Keep /home directory when installing Ubuntu 14.04 As @oldfred and @guiverc has pointed out you may or may not format the / partition. – user68186 Jan 01 '22 at 23:41
  • Thank you all. It's UbuntuDesktop 20.04 LTS. My doubt is that when I'm in the partition menu in Ubuntu install, I have the option to "delete" my partition OR to "change". I was unsure if I should "delete" my root partition and install the new one in that free space, OR do something with the "change" option. – Genis Jan 02 '22 at 00:08

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Well, for future generations to come I'll answer my own question:

If we have root('/') and '/home' partitions, and we delete the Ubuntu root partition and reinstall it again, Ubuntu will still use our existing /home partition to place all personal files. In short, you will not lose your personal files.

It is also no longer necessary to have a separate swap partition. When you reinstall, do not specify anything for swap and the installation will create a swapfile to be used instead.

Bovine
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Genis
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    By re-creating the / partition; you told the installer to do a clean install & not automatically re-install prior manually installed packages (ie. not re-create your prior system automatically). The option of format/re-use (delete & create new requires a format) changes the install type to a cleaner install (ie. without prior package changes you'd installed on your system). Your choice was to save only the user files (in /home), not packages. Desktop users have more choice with their options, but it was unclear to me what you were wanting. – guiverc Jan 04 '22 at 23:35