Uprading to 5.X from 4.X

[Iain Dooley]

Jan Pechanec wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Iain Dooley wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Use sysinstall to do a binary upgrade, or carefully follow the
>>>directions in the handbook.
>>
>>binary upgrade!!! brilliant, i didn't even know it existed. is there a section
>>in the handbook on it? i couldn't find one. 
> 
> 
> 	hi, be sure you know that 5.x uses UFS2. If you do just a binary 
> upgrade, you keep older UFS1. It will work but generally it may not be a 
> good idea. j.
> 
> http://sixshooter.v6.thrupoint.net/jeroen/faq.html

so if i install from binaries i should do:

newfs -U -O 2 /dev/da1s1a
mount /dev/da1s1a /mnt
cd /mnt
dump 0buf 126 - / | restore xbf 126 -

can someone please explain what these commands are doing? will i lose data that is on the device? if i go through the make buildworld/make installworld process then do i still need to do this to update to UFS2??

what significance does this:

1.18. My /boot/loader reports "Invalid format"?

from the above article hold for me. is it likely to happen? i read through the /usr/src/UPDATING document for 5.x when i tried to install on my laptop, but still couldn't manage to upgrade from 4.10 to 5.3 without errors. i can't afford to do that on my current system because i need it for work and uni.

do i have to just back up all my data, install 5.3, format the hard drive and then reinstall all my applications? it'll take ages...