"tune2fs -I 256" runtime---can it be interrupted safely?

["Michael B. Trausch" <mike@trausch.us>]

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Hello,

I have a drive (a 250 GB external USB hard drive) which I wanted to
convert to 256 byte inodes and start using as an ext4 drive (currently
I use it as ext3).  However, I started the tune2fs operation on 01 Nov
2008 02:27:34 -0400, and it is currently nearly 13 hours later, and the
operation is _still_ going at 100% of one core and operating on the
drive.

Three questions:

  * Is this normal?
  * How long can I expect this process to continue?
  * Can it be (safely) interrupted if it will continue for a long time?

I converted my home directory to ext4 without issue and so I (stupidly,
I admit) did not take a backup of this 250 GB drive's contents before I
started the conversion process.  Oops.  Lesson learned.  My thinking at
this point is that it would take _far_ less time to interrupt, backup,
and just use mkfs.ext4 on the drive and then restore (about 2 hours
instead of an unknown quantity which is already nearing 13 hours).

	Thanks,
	Mike Trausch

-- 
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