1 Topic by Shimoda (edited by gedakc 2016-05-04 21:37:25)

  • Shimoda
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2014-06-19
  • Posts: 1

Topic: [closed] Moving data while moving ext4 partition

hi :-)

i'm moving an ext4 partition.
i thought that it would be a quick operation, thinking that it would move only the data out of the new partion boundaries.. instead it's moving ALL the data in the partition.
Why? why not to move only the data that is strictly necessay to move?
other tools for windows do that....

sorry for my english and thanks

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
  • Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-11-30
  • Posts: 4,593

Re: [closed] Moving data while moving ext4 partition

The reasons moves are much slower is that each file system stores important metadata at known locations at the front of the partition, and often further out in the partition.  When the start of a partition is moved, all of this data must be moved along with the corresponding files and such.

When file system specific tools are available to perform operations, we try to use these.  Having said that there are often few or no tools for moving file systems.  In those cases we move all the sectors to ensure that nothing is missed.