I have an ext3 partition full of data (/dev/sda3) and want to used it with Ubuntu 10.04 (which I plan to used with it’s ext4 partition), there is no way I can backup a 250GB data because I didn’t have a backup media available at that time.
So the only option is to convert the ext3 partition to ext4 partition, here’s what I did.
(1) Fireup Ubuntu 10.04 from my usb-flashdisk and continue with live session.
(2) Open a terminal program
(3) Run a filesystem check on it to make sure it is in sane condition.
fsck.ext3 -pf /dev/sda3
(in your case if it’s mounted, don’t forget to unmount it: umount /dev/sda3)
(4) Enable new features of ext4 on the filesystem
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sda3
(5) Run a filesystem check. to make sure that the filesystem is now clean.
fsck.ext4 -pf /dev/sda3
(if it said you have to run it manually do it like this: fsck.ext4 -y /dev/sda3)
(6) Done.
(7) Note: If you converting a partition for your system, edit your /etc/fstab accordingly, replace “ext3” with “ext4” for /dev/sda3. Other options may differ for your system.
/dev/sda3 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
Travelling Linux 