Converting ext3 to ext4 filesystem

Here is a little tip which might help people to do the required thing to get the job done. As the title of this post said..will outline the procedure for that.

Here we go..


bhaskar@GentooLinux_10:50:09_Thu Mar 28:~> sudo blkid
Password:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="ARCH" UUID="9db5a364-ee86-4c57-8252-bfff8581e4b6" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Fedora-boot" UUID="ff94a6b0-3eee-4dc9-83e0-cbde449e93d7" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: UUID="kiCF1K-xTxV-t2Yu-CrBX-oENB-1kSn-6UY4Va" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sda5: UUID="X2MDAl-EaD9-s0kY-FbpZ-X6Wo-GowQ-yvTu1z" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="Fedora" UUID="7945ae6e-7061-4153-a5a1-ab9f60f693ae" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda7: UUID="61147c93-cf06-4d45-8204-b79b5b5d19a4" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="Slackware" UUID="77de30c7-fb6a-42d8-9cc3-7bd29e2cba06" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda9: LABEL="Gentoo" UUID="d83b45ce-ce1c-4678-9663-b884bab6f5cb" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda10: LABEL="Debian" UUID="1c0feb69-e586-4b2a-b774-176066a12e00" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda11: LABEL="ScientificLinux" UUID="7dedb9fe-8d77-4c93-bdbd-3297281041be" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda12: LABEL="openSUSE" UUID="924f28b3-8cda-4d7e-a833-c7687580e113" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda13: UUID="1Ke3cG-vv1Y-vgi6-Sszr-r3nz-xbQx-QzFyp1" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/mapper/home-home: UUID="9fa403bf-858d-4ce2-9b5e-03bdeb2e9406" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/mapper/data-lvmdata: UUID="569e992f-3782-4689-8abf-85b59af4ba17" TYPE="ext3"
bhaskar@GentooLinux_11:58:30_Thu Mar 28:~> cat convert_to_ext4
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/dev-name

For example convert /dev/sdb1 to ext4, enter:
# cd /; umount /dev/sdb1
# tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sdb1
Next run fsck, enter:
# fsck -pf /dev/sdb1
a10skar@GentooLinux_11:58:38_Thu Mar 28:~> sudo tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sda10
tune2fs 1.42 (29-Nov-2011)
bhaskar@GentooLinux_11:59:18_Thu Mar 28:~> fsck -pf /dev/sda10
bash: fsck: command not found
bhaskar@GentooLinux_11:59:36_Thu Mar 28:~> whereis fsck
fsck: /sbin/fsck.cramfs /sbin/fsck.minix /sbin/fsck.ext2 /sbin/fsck.ext4dev /sbin/fsck.ext4 /sbin/fsck.ext3 /sbin/fsck /usr/share/man/man8/fsck.8.bz2
bhaskar@GentooLinux_11:59:42_Thu Mar 28:~> sudo /sbin/fsck -pf /dev/sda10
fsck from util-linux 2.21.2
Debian: 261230/1220608 files (1.1% non-contiguous), 1666171/4882432 blockssudo blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="ARCH" UUID="9db5a364-ee86-4c57-8252-bfff8581e4b6" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="Fedora-boot" UUID="ff94a6b0-3eee-4dc9-83e0-cbde449e93d7" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: UUID="kiCF1K-xTxV-t2Yu-CrBX-oENB-1kSn-6UY4Va" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sda5: UUID="X2MDAl-EaD9-s0kY-FbpZ-X6Wo-GowQ-yvTu1z" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="Fedora" UUID="7945ae6e-7061-4153-a5a1-ab9f60f693ae" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda7: UUID="61147c93-cf06-4d45-8204-b79b5b5d19a4" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda8: LABEL="Slackware" UUID="77de30c7-fb6a-42d8-9cc3-7bd29e2cba06" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda9: LABEL="Gentoo" UUID="d83b45ce-ce1c-4678-9663-b884bab6f5cb" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda10: LABEL="Debian" UUID="1c0feb69-e586-4b2a-b774-176066a12e00" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda11: LABEL="ScientificLinux" UUID="7dedb9fe-8d77-4c93-bdbd-3297281041be" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda12: LABEL="openSUSE" UUID="924f28b3-8cda-4d7e-a833-c7687580e113" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda13: UUID="1Ke3cG-vv1Y-vgi6-Sszr-r3nz-xbQx-QzFyp1" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/mapper/home-home: UUID="9fa403bf-858d-4ce2-9b5e-03bdeb2e9406" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/mapper/data-lvmdata: UUID="569e992f-3782-4689-8abf-85b59af4ba17" TYPE="ext3"


In the many partition I have changed the “Debian” partition from ext3 to ext4.Next time you get into that specific drive …please check the file /proc/filesystems …and it should enlist ext4 in it.

Hope this will help.

Cheers!
Bhaskar