Things todo for a clean upgrade of Ubuntu Linux

This is a list of steps of what to do whenever i did a re-install of Ubuntu Linux with the latest version or released of the distro.

1. Housekeeping
   
   Housekeeping your HDD or especially your home directory first before doing backup will probably save you a significant amount of time during file transfer to backup your data. This is true especially you have more than 100GB of data to backup.
   
   
   
   

   USB transfer speed: 25MByte/s (200Mbit/s)
   Time taken to transfer 100GB: 100,000/25 = 4,000 seconds = 67 minutes
   Time taken to transfer 150GB: 100 minutes
   Time taken to transfer 200GB: 133 minutes
   

   
   Disk Usage Analyzer is a great tool that can tells you what files are taking the most space in your HDD. It can help to decide if some of the huge files are no longer needed and good to delete.
   
   
   
   
2. Backup all data to external HDD
   
   All the data that i need to backup is just from my home directory. So all i need to do is to backup the whole of my home directory. Manual copy is the easiest.
   
   
3. Create a list of software names to install in the new system
   
   While the data is transferring, make a list of applications or softwares by referring to what is installed in the old system.
   
   
4. Erase, format HDD and install Ubuntu Linux
   
   Insert the latest Ubuntu Linux install disk, reboot and start installation.
   
   
5. Check for updates and install if updates available
   
   After installation completes, check for any updates and install them. This will make the whole system up to date.
   
   
6. Batch install all softwares listed previously
   
   By using either the applications installer or Synaptics Package Manager, mark all applications or softwares to be install and start installing them in batch.
   
   
7. Restore backup data to new system
   
   Selectively restore the data to the new system. All data doesn't need to be restored. Things like configs folders usually hidden and they are not essential to be restored. Of course there are some exception like Pidgin data and conky script which i usually restore back.