dir_index and parted 1.6.5

[Steve Brownjohn]

Hello Mrs and Mr Gnu (and all the Gnu's readers)

a slight problem ...
my partition table is basically:
/dev/hda1 - with Mandrake
/dev/hda2 - extended
/dev/hda5 - Mandrake /home
/dev/hda6 - swap
/dev/hda7 - Slackware

I'd like to copy my /dev/hda7 to (onto) the larger /dev/hda1 using 
parted boot
and root disks, but I get the "incompatible feature" error. The features on
/dev/hda1 and /dev/hda7 are the same, ie:
has_journal
filetype
sparse_super
dir_index
No trouble with tune2fs to clear the first three, but dir_index won't 
budge,
and the "incompatible feature" is still there. Mandrake's future is safe !

So, hop into Slackware where I can tune2fs to clear dir_index on /dev/hda1.
Tootle back to Mandrake, try tune2fs -O ^dir_index /dev/hda7 and get the
following:
"tune2fs: Is a directory while trying to open /dev/hda7
Couldn't find valid superblock"
Okay, so my partition table is dodgy (you should see my kitchen table).

In short, is there anyway I can use the tune2fs (version 1.32 - that deals
with dir_index) from my Slackware partition (eg copying to disk?) rather 
than
the 1.27 version (which doesn't) that's included with parted 1.6.5 ?

Many thanks for any pointers in the right direction,

Steve Brownjohn
(a Gnu-bie)