From ext3 to ReiserFS without formatting....

[Nossie]

Hi,

Is it possible to convert a partition from ext3 to ReiserFS without having to format the partition (and lose the data on it) ?
My instinct tells me it can't be done, but i just had to ask it anyway

greets,
Nossie

[Dolio]

I doubt this can be done.

I'd say your best option for preserving the data is taring up the contents of the partition on another partition (or on some other backup media), formatting, and then dumping it back. Make sure you use the -p (preserve ownership) option.
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[Miles]

I have to agree with Dolio, it's almost certainly impossible to convert the filesystem type. You can only upgrade from ext2 to ext3 because it's just the journalling information that is added.

Why do you want to change anyway? (N.B. I prefer reiserfs)

[NU-Slacker]

Actually, there is a program out that claims that it can do such a task. It supports converting between XFS, EXT2/3, JFS, ReiserFS and others without completely reformatting (from your point of view). http://tzukanov.narod.ru/convertfs/

Basically, this program creates an image of the filesystem type that you want. Then it copies each file from the original fs into the image. Once that is completed, the original fs is overwritten with the new image containing the new filesystem with all the old files.

BEWARE: This can be extremely dangerous. I have never (successfully) used this program. The time I did try was on an unstable system and crashed during the copying. The process took a long time for a 40G drive, and as always YMMV.
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[Miles]

Sounds like a way to do Dolio's method automatically. But if I had the space I'd much rather do it manually.