back up system &format ext3 to ext4 and load backup?

[leo5111]

what im saying is can i do backup of my system which is ext3 format drive to ext4 and load backup back onto the disk which will be ext4 or does that not work??

[D-cat]

Depends on how you do the backup.

An image type backup will restore with the same file system, so that wouldn't work. If you use an archive file type backup (like tar), then it doesn't much matter the file system; this would be the way to change the file system.

Note: use an archive designed for posix such as tar. Do not use zip, rar, arj... because they are designed for DOS (and later Windows) and do not store the permissions information.

Also be aware that if you are changing the fs of the root partition (/) AND if you have your bootloader (i.e. grub) installed on the partition's boot track instead of the MBR, you will likely have to re-install the bootloader after. That's not typical in Linux these days but it's a possibility to be aware of. Supergrub can make easy work of that.

[leo5111]

well im on mint 7 32 bit, which is ubuntu 9.04 basicly. i backed up with program in mint called mint backup, does that backup files or the filesystem as well? and is EXT4 good to use yet? dont want to install a buggy filesystem

[D-cat]

From what I understand, MintBackup was disigned to only back up your home folder. This would inherently be a file mode backup which is good as far as saving your data, but also be aware that unless you have made a separate /home partition, you will need to re-install the whole system.

As far as the maturity of ext4, I can't comment as I've never used it. I don't know how well it performs, how stable it s, or what tools are available to maintain it. Maybe someone more experienced here can answer that one for you.

Edit:

What I was referring to for backing up the whole system would be like running dar with sudo.

[Segfault]

EXT4 is fine.