Questions about recovering data. Includes data loss due to hardware failure, software failure, and user or administrator failure (accidental delete). Please also add tags for the specific things involved, such as /raid, /ext4, /hard-disk, /rm, etc.
Questions tagged [data-recovery]
852 questions
186
votes
14 answers
Recover deleted files on Linux
Is there a command to recover/undelete deleted files by rm?
rm -rf /path/to/myfile
How can I recover myfile? If there is a tool to do this, how can I use it?
pylover
- 3,328
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- 26
93
votes
9 answers
Recovering accidentally deleted files
I accidentally deleted a file from my laptop. I'm using Fedora. Is it possible to recover the file?
C.S.
- 1,783
- 2
- 18
- 21
81
votes
2 answers
How to recover files I deleted now by running rm *?
By mistake I ran rm * on the current directory where I created many c program files. I had been working on these since morning. Now I can't take out again the time that I spent since morning on creating the files. Please say how to recover. They…
Ravi
- 3,723
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- 66
77
votes
7 answers
Can overwritten files be recovered?
I am not talking about recovering deleted files, but overwritten files. Namely by the following methods:
# move
mv new_file old_file
# copy
cp new_file old_file
# edit
vi existing_file
> D
> i new_content
> :x
Is it possible to retrieve anything…
Question Overflow
- 4,568
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68
votes
4 answers
undelete a just deleted file on ext4 with extundelete
Is there a simple option on extundelete how I can try to undelete a file called /var/tmp/test.iso that I just deleted?
(it is not so important that I would start to remount the drive read-only or such things. I can also just re-download that file…
rubo77
- 27,777
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- 199
64
votes
5 answers
Recovering ext4 superblocks
Recently, my external hard drive enclosure failed (the hard drive itself powers up in another enclosure). However, as a result, it appears its EXT4 file system is corrupt.
The drive has a single partition and uses a GPT partition table (with the…
tlvince
- 1,156
- 1
- 8
- 11
61
votes
3 answers
I've just "mv"ed a 49GB directory to a bad file path, is it possible to restore the original state of the files?
I have (well, I had) a directory:
/media/admin/my_data
It was approximately 49GB in size and had tens of thousands of files in it.
The directory is the mount point of an active LUKS partition.
I wanted to rename the directory…
the_velour_fog
- 11,840
- 16
- 64
- 109
53
votes
4 answers
How did `git pull` eat my homework?
I feel like a kid in the principal's office explaining that the dog ate my homework the night before it was due, but I'm staring some crazy data loss bug in the face and I can't figure out how it happened. I would like to know how git could eat my…
Caleb
- 69,278
- 18
- 196
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52
votes
2 answers
Where does MySQL store its databases on Debian?
Our system crashed and we're trying to recover our data. The disc is fine, but the OS is gone, so I'm trying to get at the actual MySQL database files.
Does anybody know where to look for them in a Debian Linux server?
arok
- 623
- 1
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36
votes
4 answers
Wrong mv command. Where did my files go?
I used the command
mv folder_name ....
I thought by using .. twice, it would move it back two folders.
Unfortunately my files disappeared.
I need to recover them.
Adam Gosztolai
- 755
- 2
- 7
- 10
35
votes
2 answers
Recovered deleted files on Mac by command line
I accidentally deleted a file by running:
rm -rf ./Desktop/myScript.sh
I think it's possible to recover the file, because the rm command removes temporarily. How can I recover the deleted file on Mac OSX?
cat916
- 577
- 2
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- 9
33
votes
2 answers
Why did powering down my machine after a bad `rm` save my files?
Classical situation: I ran a bad rm and realized immediately afterwards that I had removed the wrong files. (Nothing critical and I had tolerably recent backups, but still annoying.)
Knowing that further disk activity was my enemy if I wanted to…
a3nm
- 8,978
- 5
- 28
- 36
27
votes
2 answers
How to recover a broken mp4 file: moov atom not found
I made a recording with
ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -i plughw:0,0 /tmp/audio.mp4
I then moved /tmp/audio.mp4 to another directory (/root/audio.mp4) without stopping ffmpeg leading to a broken .mp4 file:
ffplay…
user123456
- 4,758
- 11
- 52
- 78
27
votes
5 answers
How to recover data from a bad SD card?
I have a 4GB SD card with some family pictures on it that I need to recover. When I insert the card into my card reader, it shows up as an unknown 32MB device (as /dev/sde) and cannot be mounted. When inserting back into the camera (a Nikon D60), it…
user6148
26
votes
3 answers
What are the contents of /bin/bash, and what do I do if I accidentally overwrote them
I accidentally overwrote the /bin/bash file with a dumb script that I intented to put inside the /bin folder.
How do I get the contents of that file back? Is there a way I can find the contents on the web, and just copy them back in? What are my…
GarrukApex
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