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Is it possible to convert btrfs to ext4 without losing data? I'm experiencing a very low speed on read/write operations on btrfs.

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I'm just going on the available tools, not experience or documentation. You might want to test this with a partition (even just an image) you don't mind losing if it all goes wrong. Don't attempt this without taking a backup.

btrfs-convert has a roll-back function to undo a conversion. I'm not sure if this works for partitions that weren't converted to btrfs with btrfs-convert.

  1. Start by unmounting the filesystem. If it's essential to the system, boot into a LiveCD.

  2. Install btrfs-tools

    sudo apt-get install btrfs-tools

  3. Roll back the conversion

    sudo btrfs-convert -r /dev/sdXn
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Note, that this will only work with converted filesystems and only if you haven't deleted the snapshot of the original ext3/4 filesystem. – htorque Apr 21 '11 at 15:19
Thank you but unfortunately this doesn't work for a btrfs partition not converted from other file systems. H guess I have to reinstall. – mFat Apr 23 '11 at 4:14
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Be aware that this will discard any changes made on the filesystem since you converted it. It will be restored to the contents of the ext2/3 filesystem as it was before you converted. – poolie Jan 27 '12 at 9:07
up vote 1 down vote

As far as I know you cannot convert btrfs to any other filesystem.

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