If you follow the partition guide and you ever have to re-install, you can keep all your data intact by not formatting home using the "Something Else Method ":
Hi all,
this guide can be used on any Ubuntu based system and is intended for people who have a basic working knowledge of an Ubuntu installation and wish to keep the contents of their home folder after doing a re-install.
This guide is also intended for those that already have an existing swap, root and home partition setup!!.
If you have not done/never done any pre-partitioning, please see this guide about using Gparted partition editor:
See also:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Howto…