UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Hi,
I accidentally deleted a big directory with all its sub-directories and bunch of source code files which I have been developing for about 2 years... What will I do now, how can I retrieve my files, directory hierarchy back ???

If anyone, please HELP ! ! ! ...

Do you not backup your machine/directories/work ???

Would start looking at restoring from the backups (if you have any).

Otherwise, I suspect that you're going to have to start from scratch again.

I agree with Cameron, backups are the way to go in UNIX.

There is no undelete command that runs in UNIX. DOS runs differently than UNIX. Unix, there are processes running all the time, and once you deleted that space, its fair game to be written over by another process. So it is possible that your file area has been written over by process data tens or hundreds of times.

I know its very frustrating...

If no backup system is in place, get one! If you can't then do something like

1. Make a dir called /deleteditems
2. Instead of using rm, use mv [filename/dir] /deleteditems
3. Have a script that runs rm on any file that has been placed in the /deletedfiles that has been in that dir for 10 days or whatever time period you may like.

Contrary to popular beleif it IS possible to recover lost files in Unix - well with a few caveats.....

FIRST STOP!!!! Dont run the machine anymore.
Turn it OFF.

If you need to work or correspond with people while you recover your files find another box to do it on.

As Oliie says the unlinked file area is now vunerable to being overwritten and losing the data foerever. The good news is that if you just deleted them they inodes are probably in an area that hasn't been reused yet.

Next step is to get the Coroners Toolkit.

If you have some space on the disk where your data was stored that isn't in a partition, make a new partition, install a minimal OS and compile the binary of CT for your hardware. Now move that binary to a removeable device and mount it on your damaged OS. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY.

Its a long process, complicated and far too much to go into here. It involves icat, finding parts of the masterblock etc. Your best hope is that all the files were under one directory.

I did for someone a year or so back...with limited success I must admit. Its certainly less work than rewriting 2 years of code. You might be able to find a partial recovery, perhaps the last working source file or something.

Good Luck

Hi,

if you are using Linux, and ext2 or ext3 you can may be undelete the most of your files.

At www.linuxsysad.com you can download a Linux undelete HowTo, and most times you can recovery fresh rempved files.

But don't play/work with your system, every second working with your system will decrease the chance to get back the system.

regards
Alex