Howto move user to new HDD with newer version of Zorin

I apologize in advance if this is a redundant question, but I can't seem to find exactly the same situation. I have upgraded to Zorin 12 on a new larger drive.

What I would like to do is move my current user account from my old Zorin 9 drive to the new Zorin 12 drive. When this is finished, I would also like my account to still be able to access everything on my data drive.


Current drives....

350 GB with Zorin 9 installed
500 GB for data storage

New drive to replace 350 GB OS drive
1 TB with Zorin 12 installed

There is plenty of empty space on my data drive, so I was thinking that the procedure might be something like

1 backup the Zorin 9 user account to the data drive
2 backup Thunderbird profile to the data drive
3 replace the Zorin 9 drive with the Zorin 12 drive
4 restore the user account from the data drive to the Zorin 12 drive
5 restore the Thunderbird profile from the data drive to the Zorin 12 drive
6 live happily ever after until I fill up the new OS drive

Oh. I have a user account on the Zorin 12 drive with the same name as the account I'm trying to move, so I'm assuming I need to create a different account and delete the duplicate account that I'm going to replace.

Does this sound even sorta correct? If so, could someone please flesh out the details a bit or point me to a tutorial for moving a user to a drive with a newer OS?

Thanks very much.

JD

OK, I have never done this - what I do is just back up my entire /home drive to exteral drive used for backups remembering first to ensure that all hidden folders are shown by using Ctrl+ H - hidden folders commence with "." - and that will include Thunderbird and all other application settings.
E.g.:



Then when you have set up 12 just replace every folder in Home with your backed up folders. NO GUARANTEES!

Keep us posted.

P.S. You should still be able to access your data drive.

Ok, I'll give it a try. If it fails, it will still leave the Zorin 9 drive intact, so there's no risk other than possibly having to reinstall the Zorin 12 drive and try something else.

I predict that I will run into file permission issues.... Will let you know what happens.

Thanks, Swarfender

Bill