UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Hey Guys,

I have literally shot my myself in the head...
I tried to use "sudo rm -rf /*" in Terminal (OSX); Unfortunately, I forgot cd Desktop.
After I realized it, I was like

After that i tried exit; but rm was a background command, so this did not work either...
I came to late for sudo kill 1...

It seems like half of the drive is deleted, Even OS is corrupted. Is there a Way restoring the Data from an SSD card?

Your sincerely,
Niclas

Any chance you have a Time Machine backup?

Make an appointment with your local Apple Store Genius Bar. They'll probably be able to restore macOS on your system. After that, if you had a time machine backup, you can recover everything you had backed up.

Good luck.

I could have eaisly bought a ThunderboltToUSB Adapter, was to stingy...

It is so stupid and hillarious, it is funny again...

Edit: Thanks for the Advice with the OS...

See updated post #2. I'm afraid most, if not all, of your personal data is gone if you didn't have a backup.

Thanks for your advice! Will do that! The iCloud Drive was not corrupted, so it is fine for the personal stuff...

First of all, you can restore MacOS when the entire operating system is corrupted using your Time Machine backup.

Not long ago, I was upgrading one of my Macs and the system froze in the middle of OS installation. The box was dead. It would not boot and would barely flicker when powered on.

I went to the web and Googled "restore MacOS from Time Machine" and followed the instructions to hold down some keys, boot off the Time Machine backup, and soon I had my entire ex-corrupted system up and working again. Yea!

OBTW, I own four (active and fully backed up) Macs. One super high end MacPro (my main development machine with 34" ASUS gaming monitor), one MacMini, which I use as a kind of active network storage device, and two MacBook Airs. Each of these machines has a full and mostly current Time Machine backup (based on the last time I upgraded the OS or how active I use it) and I keep it that way; especially for my development machine where I work daily.

Hence, the moral of my story is that you must have backups. There is no excuse for not having them with cheap external SSD drives on the market. Having backups one of the most fundamental things you can do to secure you computer data. It's your responsibility to do this.

So, when you do something wrong and break your system, or the system breaks due to some disk error or other problem, you can restore from backup. Systems always break. They will break at some point in time for some reason you cannot even imagine. This is just as basic of an understanding as making sure you have a spare tire in the back of you car when drive, or as basic has having an extra shoe for your horse on your farm. Your body stores fat as a backup energy supply for your body. Backups are a part of nature and are core to your security.

There is no excuse for not having a backup. Just do it and do it often.

Cheers.