want to upgrade from 7.10 to latest

Since Ubuntu 7.10 is quite old *and* you have no Internet connection, your best bet is probably to wipe the disk and start over. First, you must offload all your documents and any other important files. Then, if you want to use Ubuntu 11.10 (currently the latest stable version of Ubuntu), download the desktop CD .iso image for that, and burn it to a CD/DVD or write it to a USB flash drive in accordance with the instructions at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download. It's a good idea to try out the live system to make sure it works OK on your computer, before installing, so I recommend selecting Try Ubuntu (rather than Install Ubuntu) when you boot from it. After you verify that it works OK, you can install it by double-clicking on the installer icon on the desktop (or in the Unity launcher on the left side of the screen).

Hello Mike!
Save your data, than use the instruction here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
Choose in point 2 "Burn your CD or create a bootable USB stick", follow the instructions.

I wish you every success!

i actually installed today and havent really done anything with it. just looked around a bit. so i dont any of the files on the hard drive.

i also noticed that when i tried using one of my portable hdd i didnt like it.

Excellent. In that case, you should definitely just start over, doing a fresh installation (pick to install to the "entire disk" if you don't have another OS, such as Windows, installed that you want to keep) of whatever Ubuntu release you'd like to use.

If you do have another OS that you want to keep, please let us know--that would require a slightly different procedure.

i want to use the latest ubuntu and thats it.

no when i download this file im using a windows 7 pc will that affect me at all

No, what kind of machine or operating system is used to download and burn/write the installation .iso does not matter, for how to install Ubuntu using the burned CD/DVD or written USB flash drive.

Burning a CD/DVD on Windows, or writing a USB flash drive on Windows, is done a bit differently from the way those things are done on Ubuntu. But there are Windows-specific instructions at http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download (in Step 2, with "Windows" selected, click "Show me how").

thanks im running the universal usb installer so far it looks good. im sure it takes a while. im 5 minutes in

It shouldn't take hours, but it certainly can take some time, depending on what kind of USB interface you have and the maximum transfer rate of your USB flash drive, as well as other factors.

Good luck!

well the universal usb installer finished and nothing else popped up and the instructions didnt say to do anything else on the website. so i put into the other pc and i booted the 7.10 insted of 11.10

well i got it onto a cd and that is running fine but. when i tried to install it did not give me the option to upgrade from 7.10 to 11.10 i had to run alongside eachother. i believe that was it. well thanx for everything if i have anymore needs i will repost.

Do *not* install alongside the old system. You want to erase the old system, and replace it with Ubuntu 11.10. So tell it to use the entire disk, instead of installing alongside another system.

There is never an option to upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 11.10. 11.10 is eight releases later than 7.10!

(Sorry, six releases.)

@Mike Ayala

If you want you can during install when you get to the partition stage select something else ( or similar to that) and make separate home partition.That way your files will be safe.I will make that like this

root= ~10-20 GB mountpoint /root
swap= 2GB max
home= rest of free space mountpoint /home

If you want to update your Ubuntu and you don´t have internet connection on that machine read http://keryxproject.org/