# Newbie question about filesystems



## Dinchamion (Jul 1, 2009)

Hello guys,

I'm considering trying out FreeBSD on my computer, and I have a question. My private stuff (not that private though, my /home folder, basically) is on a seperate partition using ext4 filesystem. (Currently I'm running Gentoo) Will I be able to use that partition in FreeBSD, do I need anything special to do with it?

Thanks!


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## jb_fvwm2 (Jul 1, 2009)

To where will you install BSD?
What are the disk/partition  sizes?
What and where is your backup before install?
IF you dual boot what dual-boot manager or method?
One possibility is 
bsd || fat32 || gentoo  
and share between gentoo/bsd with the fat32 (dual boot).
(Others know about the gentoo FS specifically)
If you can search the freebsd-questions list that may save
time in getting a more comprehensive answer.


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## DutchDaemon (Jul 1, 2009)

I think the OP is only inquiring whether he can mount ext4 on FreeBSD. As far as I know, only ext2 can be used read-write, ext3 should be mounted read-only (writes are not journalled and may cause corruption). I don't know the status of ext4, but mounting and using it just like a regular partition appears to be outside the realm of possibilities.


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## Beastie (Jul 1, 2009)

If you want to keep FreeBSD, then it would be much better to store your files on a UFS2 partition.

Depending on its size, backup your /home directory to a (probably FAT32-preformatted) pendrive or external HDD and restore them to the newly created UFS2 home.


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## Dinchamion (Jul 1, 2009)

Yes, myquestion was that if I could use my existing ext4 partition as-is.  

Problem is, I really have no way to backup my data.  I have a swap partition, a 6GB root partition, 10G for /usr and the rest (cca. 140GB) is my /home directory with my stuff. Now 140GB is a lot to backup...  I could shape the other partitions to whatever size and filesystem, but I wanted to keep the last one untouched.

Well, I'll look for another way. I may just have to borrow my boss' usb hard drive _again_, and I just gave it back to him two days ago. (I actually only converted this partition to ext4 on the weekend -- I liked the speed increase over reiserfs)

So, just for clarification, I can't use it? Meh.


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## Beastie (Jul 1, 2009)

According to my Google and Wikipedia searches, ext4 is only supported on Linux. So no, you can't use it.


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## Dinchamion (Jul 1, 2009)

Well, then backup it is. Thanks for the replies!

(How in the world do I edit the first post to show "solved"?)


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