Copying data to convert file system type

[jameson_uk]

My array has 4x2TB drives running reiserfs.    As this is no longer supported I have been looking at switching to XFS but just looking at the best way to achieve this.

 

AIUI the only viable way to do this is to copy the drive contents to another drive, format the original and copy it back.

 

Just looking at the fastest way to achieve this without spending  a huge amount.

I have a pretty old HP Microserver which is fairly limited in resources (Array + cache take up all the SATA slots and USB is USB 2.0 only).   There is however an e-sata port.

 

I have an old USB WD Elements drive which I have hooked up and just running rsync now and it has taken 2 hours to copy 182GB so I an looking at 20 something hours to copy the 1..4 TB that is used on the drive and then 20+ hours to copy it all back and then repeat for the other two data drives.    Isn't the end of world but just wondering if there is a better way to do this?

 

I did look at connecting up a drive via e-sata but seems there are limited options and most the enclosures you can get are £100+ and I don't want to be spending anywhere near that amount....

 

Any thoughts on any cheap ways to speed this up?

Thinking I could crack open the WD external HDD and then take the array offline, replace one of the disks with the WD one and then hopefully get it a bit quicker over SATA (is only SATA 2.0) or perhaps use a USB 3 PCIe card to connect the WD Elements drive??   Any other ideas?