I have 2 TB of data on an NTFS drive which I would like to convert to EXT4 filesystem. My OS runs on a (comparatively) small 60GB SSD. Is there any way to convert the filesystem, apart from backing up and reformatting?
It looks like a direct conversion from NTFS to ext4, but internally the procedures are:
Shrink the NTFS partition
Create an ext4 partition in the empty space
Move data from NTFS to ext4 until ext4 is full
If NTFS is empty (all data was moved), go to step 8
Shrink NTFS
Enlarge ext4
Repeat steps 3 to 6 until done
Delete NTFS partition
Move ext4 partition to NTFS' orignal place
Trim ext4 partition to NTFS' original size
So the more occupied your NTFS partition is, the longer it will take. If it is less than 50%, it will convert in one pass, in a single shrink-copy-enlarge iteration.
Although Parted Magic conveniently automates all of this, it is still essentially the same procedures described by arrange, so it is very risky and very time consuming. Backup-format-restore is much safer and much faster.
Old post so I hope someone finds this useful. This might take a long time.
Open gparted and right click the partition in question, click resize and shrink it to just a few GB above what's in there. Create an ext4 partition.
Mount both partitions and copy/move as many files as you can from the ntfs to the ext4.
If you move the files, you free up space on the ntfs partition.
Unmount both (I don't think this works if mounted) and go back to gparted. Repeat step one to shrink the ntfs as far as you can, again leave a couple of GB wiggle room. Enlarge the ext4 partition.
Mount the partitions again and go back to moving files.
Rinse and repeat until all files have been successfully moved.
If need be, you could use a couple of GB of your SSD to free up enough space on the ntfs partition... But remember that the more free space available, the faster this will go.
Once you have repeated this enough times, delete the ntfs partition and enlarge the ext4 to fill the entire drive.
This SHOULD work with any filesystem supported by Linux, but I have only tested it with ext4/ntfs.
Open the required partition.
right click in the partition and select properties.
"Select Open in disk"
Select the partition and you will see a settings button.
go to additional settings
select repair file system.
and its done. now you can make new folder and whatever you want.
I did this on Ubunto 20. LTS
Thank me later.
Just for the record, there is a software (actually, a mini-distro) that does exactly the procedure arrange said in enzotib's answer:
Parted Magic
It looks like a direct conversion from NTFS to ext4, but internally the procedures are:
So the more occupied your NTFS partition is, the longer it will take. If it is less than 50%, it will convert in one pass, in a single shrink-copy-enlarge iteration.
Although Parted Magic conveniently automates all of this, it is still essentially the same procedures described by arrange, so it is very risky and very time consuming. Backup-format-restore is much safer and much faster.
No, there is no way that I am aware of.
The only way, as you said, is to backup->format->restore.
Actually there IS a way to do this almost directly.
You could easily convert NTFS to ext2 / ext3 with anyconvertfs from anyfs-tools
Then you could convert it to ext4 using tune2fs.
Another alternative is https://github.com/cosmos72/fstransform
Which is also available in the repos, so installable with:
Please read through the documentation as it is a risky procedure.
Old post so I hope someone finds this useful. This might take a long time.
Open gparted and right click the partition in question, click resize and shrink it to just a few GB above what's in there. Create an ext4 partition.
Mount both partitions and copy/move as many files as you can from the ntfs to the ext4.
If you move the files, you free up space on the ntfs partition.
Unmount both (I don't think this works if mounted) and go back to gparted. Repeat step one to shrink the ntfs as far as you can, again leave a couple of GB wiggle room. Enlarge the ext4 partition.
Mount the partitions again and go back to moving files.
Rinse and repeat until all files have been successfully moved.
If need be, you could use a couple of GB of your SSD to free up enough space on the ntfs partition... But remember that the more free space available, the faster this will go.
Once you have repeated this enough times, delete the ntfs partition and enlarge the ext4 to fill the entire drive.
This SHOULD work with any filesystem supported by Linux, but I have only tested it with ext4/ntfs.
Open the required partition. right click in the partition and select properties. "Select Open in disk" Select the partition and you will see a settings button. go to additional settings select repair file system. and its done. now you can make new folder and whatever you want. I did this on Ubunto 20. LTS Thank me later.