>>>> (Or is this something I really shouldn't be doing?)
>
> I've had ext3 turn into ext2 just be rebooting an old release.
>
> Getting back to ext3 required some command as I remember...

Early versions of fsck.ext2, if I recall, would get rid of the journal -
and in order to get it back, you'd have to use a more recent version of
tune2fs. However, as you say, that would have to be an old OS - I haven't
had that happen in a very long time.

steve