# Re-using a /datastores directory of a previous install

**URL:** <https://forum.opennebula.io/t/re-using-a-datastores-directory-of-a-previous-install/9251>\
**Category:** Operations\
**Created:** [February 20, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/re-using-a-datastores-directory-of-a-previous-install/9251 "2021-02-20T20:44:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![liviuchircu](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.opennebula.io/liviuchircu/32/6862_2.png) [@liviuchircu](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/liviuchircu)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/re-using-a-datastores-directory-of-a-previous-install/9251/1 "2021-02-20T20:44:02Z")

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I was previously using ONE 5.12 Community on Ubuntu 18.04. Then I migrated the Ubuntu to 20.04, while keeping the /datastores directory on a separate partition.

Next, I installed ONE 5.12 on the new OS - all good. Symlinked /var/lib/one to the /datastores backup and restarted both server and sunstone. While Storage → Datastores shows my datastores properly (at 70% disk usage, which is perfect!), neither Storage → Images or Instances → VMs menus don’t work as before, as they still display “empty list”.

I fiddled around with “onedatastore”, and all 3 of them (system, default, files) show as “on”. Is there anything else I can do to recover those VMs, or should I just consider them compromised and start from scratch? Was there a better technique I should have used to back everything up aside from Undeploying all VMs before reinstalling? Thank you!