Quote Originally Posted by ialtaparmakov
i wonder whether debian "repair" of knoppix hd install would be good idea? would it save the software installed if iti s possible at all?
My immediate guess would be no.
And you can use Unix tools for doing upgrade in a "semi-automatic" manner, completely safe. You can produce a list of all packages installed on your current system.
Then, do an install to USB stick of the new version, run the same command, and take the diff of the two files.
This diff can be used as a package install list for the new version, to a persistent image. Stay away from ordinary HD installs.
This way, you can get the system up and running with the approximaltely same package selection as you have now, and all library versions, modules etc in sync.

Your individual configuration and personal data files reside in directories under your /home directory, I assume you already have a backup scheme in place for that.
In addition, you could take backups of /etc/rc.local end the init files under /etc/init.d and check differences with the new install, updating as necessary.