ok - whats about this scenario: (asume this only for SUSE, not for other distros, even it should be done the same way I think) - having / home (and as we are so far, /boot also) on its owen partition - when doing a new install, put /home *first* on the same as / will be, copy the home-directory from the common user to the new /home, try any apps and look if anything is working; when thats the trueth, mount /home to the home-partition of the older install - when doing any upgrades, unmount /home, mount it to /home.old for example, and create a new home-directory at /, copy the home-directory for a common user to the new home, make any upgrades that needed, try any app etc, and if anything works fine, remount /home to the old place and delete /home.old I think thats something that also could be done via YAST with some sort of "half automatic assistant"to assist the user ( beginners also as advanced users). should that a way it could be done, or I'm on a wrong and / or dangerously (for the data in /home) way ? regards, JBScout