How to reinstall Ubuntu on our computer

Although Ubuntu is a reliable and robust operating system that does not usually cause problems, we can always try things that cause us to experience crashes that we do not know how to fix. What can we do in that case? An alternative, which some of you will think is better and others that is not worth it, is reinstall Ubuntu. Reinstalling an Ubuntu-based operating system is a fairly simple process that we will explain below, as well as some reasons why we might want to do it and the differences between installation types.

Differences between Install, Reinstall and Update

• Install: using this option what we will be doing is eliminating the system that we have installed on our computer or installing it together with it using dual-boot. Everything would start from 0.
• Update- If we update the system, Ubuntu will try to keep all the files and settings that we would have made and would install a higher version of Ubuntu. This may be an option next October, when Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak is released.
• Reinstall: this is what we are going to explain in this post and what we will do is keep all the configuration and files, but the system will re-install itself trying to repair all the problems we are experiencing for whatever reason.

Reasons to reinstall Ubuntu

• One of the reasons may be that we have screwed up the GRUB and we cannot enter the system. Although it can be recovered otherwise, a user is likely to want to make sure to remove the root problem and prefer to reinstall Ubuntu.
• If we are one of those users who like to tweak everything, sometimes we can cause an annoying problem that we do not know how to locate. A good way to eliminate these types of stubborn problems is to reinstall the operating system.
• It may also be a good idea to reinstall Ubuntu if we want to clean up. It is not that Ubuntu needs it, but there are people a bit "hypochondriac" in this sense and from time to time they want to eliminate some problems (although in this case I would recommend installing from 0, that I am more hypochondriac in the software than anyone).

How to reinstall Ubuntu

1. Although nothing has to happen, I would recommend making a backup copy of our personal folder, or at least the files we want to keep. Prevention is better than crying.
2. With a backup made, we will create a bootable USB with Ubuntu. I would do it with UNetbootin, which is fast and reliable.
3. We introduce the Ubuntu bootable USB into a USB port on our computer.
4. We turn on the computer and select our Pendrive as the boot drive. The way to do this will depend on the computer. On my little AAO250 I had it set to enter the boot drive selection if I pressed F12, but you can also change the order to do so automatically. It is best to enter the BIOS and configure it to read the USB first, then the DVD drive, and then the hard drive.
5. When starting from the USB we will see several options. We are interested in the one of «Try Ubuntu without installing»Or«Install Ubuntu«. The first will enter a Live Session and the second will directly enter the installer. If we want to connect to a hidden Wi-Fi network, the first option is better.

6. If we have chosen the option to test the system without installing, we will have to double click on the "Install Ubuntu" icon. If not, we move on to the next step.

7. Then we choose our language and click "Continue".

8. On the next screen, I recommend checking both boxes and clicking Continue. If we do, we will have to connect to the internet. There is a step that will tell us if we want to connect to a Wi-Fi network, as long as we have not connected to the internet before starting the installation.

9. In the next window, we choose the "Reinstall" option. It is not available to me because I also have a Windows partition.

10. We accept the notice that you will show us.

11. Next, we select our time zone and click "Continue".

12. We choose the keyboard layout and click "Continue". If you don't know which one it is, you can write it in the dialog box below so that it detects which one we use.

13. In the next window, we have to create our user. We put our username, the name of our team, which is not important but it is what we will always see in the terminal, and password. Then we click on "Continue".

14. Now we can only wait.

15. When finished, we click on "Restart" to start the system. You will see an image like the following one, but with the Ubuntu background (this capture is from Ubuntu MATE):

16. If we have the BIOS configured to start from the USB, we will have to remove the pendrive before it starts or, otherwise, it will enter it again.

Have you already reinstalled Ubuntu? How have you been?