Convert Ext3 Filesystem to Ext4 in Ubuntu 9.04

Convert an Existing Ext3 partition to Ext4

1. Perform a system update to make sure you have the latest kernel and grub boot loader.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Enable the Ext4 features (Once you run this command you will no longer be able to mount this partition using the Ext3 file system!)

$ sudo tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/sdb1

3. Run fsck to fix the disk structure we modified in the previous step with tune2fs

$ sudo e2fsck -fpDC0 /dev/sdb1

4. Update your fstab file to reflect our changes

/dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1     ext4    relatime,errors=remount-ro    0       1

When converting a drive with extents enabled, only new files will be created in the extents format.  It will not convert existing files to use extents.  However Ext4 can read both of them transparently.

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Tags: ext3 ext4 linux ntfs performance gains ubuntu