ext3 (mounted) to lvm convert
 

Is it possible to convert ext3 partitions to lvm? If so, how, and will current data be gone?

Thanks!

lvm is a container for other filesystems, not a filesystem in itself, so whilst you can convert a physical partition into an LVM PV, you can't preserve data in it. the how part is best answerwed by docs like this http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/