Help Please Can I reinsall FC 2 without losing my data

[John Summerfield]

M.K wrote:
> I installed Fedora core 2 server six month ago and it worked fine. Yesterday
> after turn off the computer the system did not boot. The server upon reboot
> will get stuck at then At grub boot screen I  removed  "rhgb quiet" and
> rebooted it. I got more messages but stuck at the same message.  INIT:
> version 2.85 booting
> I reboot the computer And used FC2's First CD with Linux rescue mode I did
> not get any errors . after continuing many steps
> the message I got  " Your system is mounted under the /mnt/sysimage
> directory"
> and the shell prompt came.  sh-2.05b#
> The result of  "ls" command:
> bin             etc           linuxra             mnt             oldtmp
>        sbin                 sys                usr
> dev              lib             lost+fund            modules          proc
>        selinux         temp             var
> 
> My question is if I reinstall FC2 without  any modification on dsk
> partitions,  is  it possible to loose my data
> "database and programs"  that I have under  usr/local/           ?
> 
> Thanks
> mkohan
> 
> 
Whether you can reinstall without losing data depends on how you're 
partitioned. Ordinarily, when you install you format/reformat some or 
all partitions: all data on those are lost.

Data on partitions you do not format will ordinarily be preserved, but 
if you reinstall and lose data, be sure you only point fingers at 
yourself:-)

Prudence says to back things up first, and Paranoia suggests replacing 
the disk first....

What should work with minimum risk is upgrading FC2 to FC2  - yest, 
that's right, upgrade FC2 to itself. There is a good chance whatever 
went wrong will magically get fixed.

Backing up first is still a good idea, and disk is cheap.