is there a way to upgrade Mandriva to the newest release within the OS rather than burning a new CD iso?

Search for "--auto-select" or "--auto-update" in previous posts, and you should find many usefull tips.

Yves.

Use the Mandriva Linux Control Center to remove all your sources.

Go to http://easyurpmi.zarb.org and follow the instructions for the desired version, you need at least the main source but it is recommended that you include also contrib and non-free. If you want access to a lot of extra programs that are not officially 'approved' you can also add the plf-free and plf-nonfree sources. Note also the licenses for these are different!

Make sure the command that you obtain to be typed is all on one line - word wrap will destroy the command. This will download the package list (around 10MB)

Now execute

This will ask to update lots of packages and their dependencies. Accept... wait... wait a little more (it may ask to remove some packages, this is normal as some programs become obsolete or conflict with new versions)... wait for the installation...and enjoy.

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Tools/urpmi/Upgrade