i want to change the format of my root partition (/dev/hda1)
without losing data.
got any ideas?

BUMP?

Zero-reply threads are automatically "bumped" several times. You have only succeeded in taking your question off of the zero-reply list, so it will no longer get bumped automatically. Also, as you only posted the question yesterday, give people a chance to answer-- not everyone is online when you are, nor are at least half of our members even necessarily awake at any given time, as members are from all around the planet :) so time-zone differences apply.

You might find that, instead of waiting for people to ask "What is it now, and what do you want to change it to?", you may get better results if you tell folks what file system is on the drive now, and what you wish to change it to.

As far as I know, unless it is one of the Ext* formats, you will have the most success and least trouble by simply backing the data up somewhere, and re/formatting a/the new partition, and putting the data back.

If it IS one of the Ext file systems, such as Ext2, you could upgrade it to Ext3 or Ext4.

Regards,
Sasha

it is ext2 and i am changing it to something else but not quite sure what
i dont get it.

i have a bad habit of bumping after a few hours if i dont get a response and am ver persistent about the problem.

*what* exactly 'don't you get'?
That is a habit you will want to get out of here on LQ, for two reasons:

1) Impatience will not win you any friends here; people don't care how urgent your problem is, nor how persistent you are, and this sort of behavior will cause folks to ignore you, not help you faster.

2) As mentioned, threads with zero-replies, i.e., a question which has not yet had a reply, will automatically get 'bumped' several times to the top of the queue, before finally being allowed to drift into oblivion. Therefore, it is not necessary, nor etiquetically correct, to bump threads.

Cheers,

Sasha

back up your data and reformat

that is how .

how do you do it on the root partition as in /

cp -a -x /* /path/your/backupdrv

if you don't have back up room and all important files are already safe, just reinstall

i am copying / to /mnt/hdb1
but wont i go into an infinite loop when it gets to /mnt/hdb1
coping the files into themselves?

Perhaps lumak was just exaggerating to make a point?

What's relevant here is that there is no need to copy **everything** if you are going to re-install the OS. If you are trying to keep the existing OS, but on a different filesystem format, then copying **everything** and then copying it back is about the most difficult method I can imagine.

Let's back off for a moment: What is the context of all this---ie what problem are you trying to solve?

no problem i just dont like the ext file system

You may but the command will not because of the cp -x option, detailed in the man page.

how do i know if *ALL* of it is copied?
i do not want to loose it all

Since you really did not completely address my last questions and comments, allow me to suggest a plan:

1. Backup your DATA ONLY somewhere. (eg external USB drive)

2. Reinstall the OS, picking your desired filesystem format.

3. Copy your data back into your /home directory.

not so good
i would rather keep evreything intact and reinstall the bootloader

I'm afraid that you are making things too difficult, but: Good Luck!

Regardless of what else you do, get your DATA safely backed up FIRST.