Linux corruption due to Resizing mounted Ext2 file system

The second extended file system, popularly known as Ext2 file system is an advanced file system for Linux Operating system. It is possible to resize the Ext2 file system, while it is currently in use . Ext2 online utility has made this possible. you should always have a complete and updated backup of your important data before mounting the file system .if anything goes wrong, you may face serious data loss situations, which requires Linux recovery software to be fixed.

Only the mounted Ext2 file system can be resized. In order to use the ext2online utility, you must have Online support to resize ext2 (CONFIG_EXT2_RESIZE) option enabled in your Linux Kernel. This feature can used after applying appropriate patch for 2.x kernel series.

The file system, as specified by the device, or the mount point must be mounted currently. By default, the size of the mounted file system is enlarged to fill up the device. If an optional size parameter is specified, then it uses the specified size instead. in case it is not available, it is taken from Ext2 file system blocks.

The ext2online utility changes the file system only. When you want to enlarge file system, you should expand underlying storage device first. You can do it , using the lvextend tool that combines file system resizing and LV extensions.

The original algorithm of Ext2 file system doesn’t provide online resizing option. There are some restrictions to the amount of resizing, that you can do while your file system is mounted.

You should always keep in mind that resizing the mounted file system is not an 100 percent safe option its quiet risky and causes file system corruption. At this point, Linux data recovery becomes essential.