How to Defragment an Ext3

The Ext3 file system is a complex file system used in Linux distributions, like the FAT and NTFS file systems are used in the Windows operating system line. While Ext3 is designed to not need to be defragmented, if you feel like you need to defragment the computer's hard drive, you can do so through the built-in e2defrag program on your Linux computer.

Instructions

1. Log in to Linux as the root user.

2. Open the Terminal (open the System menu and click on the Terminal icon).

3. Type "fdisk -l" and press "Enter" to get a list of all drives on the system. Write down or otherwise make note of the name of the drive that you want to defragment.

4. Type "umount /drive/to/defragment" and press "Enter," and replace "/drive/to/defragment" with the full path to the drive that you want to defragment. This dismounts the drive so that it can be defragmented.

5. Type "e2defrag -f /drive/to/defragment" and press "Enter" to perform the defragmenting procedure. Again, replace "drive/to/defragment" with the full path of the drive.

References

• PC Daily: Defraging a Linux Filesystem