Hi all,
I have 2 ntfs partition and want to convert them to ext4.
Is there a way that do this conversion without losing my data?
Can I do this in place?
Thanks.

1) backup, mkfs, restore
2) no

Is there a way that do this conversion without losing my data
NO

reformating a drive destroys the data that was on it


if you rerecorded over a cassette tape would the orig music still be on it ?
or if you put a new movie on a dvd -+rw would the OLD movie still be there ?

But you can convert from fat to ntfs without losing data!

theoretically possible perhaps but i don't think such a tool has been written for ntfs -> ext4, it would be just easier to copy the data off the drive, reformat, copy it back on

nasr-noor: Microsoft invested a thousand worked for months to make it possible. It is not a trivial operation -at all-, converting data structure is extremely complex work. Fat32 was quite "simple", both NTFS and EXT are much, much more complex file system, it is near impossible to do the operation. On top of that, the final nail in the coffin is that nobody really know how NTFS work, ntfs-3G stole some of the puzzle pieces from microsoft, to avoid have to understand it.

Only brtfs have file system conversion on Linux, but it is cheating, as it does not really convert it, it just host the EXT data structure in BTRFS "bubble"(subvolume).

Actually, there's a relatively old program that can convert to and from many file systems without losing data, called Partition Commander. It can boot from the CD directly (although I prefer to use the floppy boot disk - which is made during installtion of Partition Commander).

Depending on the size and speed of the drive(s), this can take from a few minutes to a several hours.

Google 'partition commander' and good luck!

Russell

Really? I did google it, and they quite clearly say on their website that it only converts between FAT/FAT32 and NTFS.

Sorry, my mistake

It supports many formats for formatting (including ext3, but not ext4 unfortunately - ext4 had not been 'invented' yet), such as the many flavors of FAT, NTFS, ext2, ReiserFS, BeOS, HPFS, and so on. But it can only convert from, like you say, between NTFS and FAT.

Still a useful tool to have.

One reason I was interested in converting my linux partition into ntfs is simply because when Windows XP boots up, it thinks the ext4 is corrupted and tries to fix it. Win 7 doesn't do this, thank goodness. I now use WinXP, when necessary, from within VirtualBox.

Russell

In a way it could be done. Re-size partition then create new and start moving data and keep re-sizing partitions until it is all moved and you simply delete the remaining ntfs and expand the ext.

You could easly convert ntfs to ext ext2 or ext3 with anyconvertfs from anyfs-tools: http://anyfs-tools.sf.net/

Then you just need to convert it to ext4 with tune2fs.

That's all.

That looks risky and very much "in beta". So you would have to have a backup of your data anyhow (which you ought to have regardless).
This begs the questions of why not just backup, wipe and start again with a fresh ext3 (or ext4, or Btrfs) partition?

Oh and you will be so kind to give me a 3 tb drive just for backup for free?

Besides, you wrong. This feature was introduced in 2007 year, and it is not "in beta" 5 years already.

Good luck when (not if, all drives fail eventually) your hard drive fails then .
If you don't care about your data then fair enough I suppose but I'd still not want to run that tool without a backup first.

You're pathetic if you care about your extra-valuable data. And moreover - you are coward.

Faint heart never won fair lady