Deleted very important file

Aerosilver · 12-08-2012, 08:33 AM

Hello everyone.

accidentally I delete a very important file (my project to the school), is a script maked in openSUSE (Virtual Machine).

The problem is that I don't know what happened, but I delete all my files of the project using a command trying to delete one file.

If somebody know how to resolve this problem I appreciate it so much.

I don't know if there is a way to restore to the past a directory or some like that.

Regards

Lennie · 12-08-2012, 09:23 AM

As long as the files are not overwritten, it should be possible to recover them. Boot up your virtual machine with a live CD. Don't run the installed system, because then it will write files to the drive and it might overvrite the files. PhotoRec and TestDisc (on the same site) are good tools to recover deleted files.

Aerosilver · 12-08-2012, 09:48 AM

I tried to install photorec using:

Code:

zypper install photorec

But the system show:

Code:

Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
'testdisk' not found.
Resolving package dependencies...
Nothing to do.

I tried too to installing it downloading it from the website: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
But I don't know how to install a tar.bz2

I tried to use: tar xvjf testdisk-6.14-WIP.linux26-x86_64.tar.bz2
and the file is uncompressed.

Then I enter into the directory uncompressed and I tried the typically command: ./configure.
But that don't run.... The system say "directory don't found" or something like that.

Sorry for my poor english.
I don't know i've got to do.

TobiSGD · 12-08-2012, 09:51 AM

Are you running that from your installed system? If so, don't do that! You will overwrite your file (if you haven't done that already). Use a live-CD, just download a copy of grml opr RIP Linux on you Windows machine and connect it to the VM's CD-ROM, then start from it and use Photorec (already installed) to scan the free space for files.
Good luck.

Tip for the future: think about a proper backup plan.

Aerosilver · 12-08-2012, 12:33 PM

Well, I recovered my files, but the photorec found more than 1000 files. And all the files are with the name of:

f0119811.sh

And all files with names like that.

I try to find my file using

Code:

find backup -type f -name myscript.sh

But I can't find it because all files are renamed at f011...

Now the unique way to find my file is finding a especifally word in all that scripts. But I don't know how to do that.
For example: If I search the word "consulta_marcas" I can fin the script.

Thanks

TobiSGD · 12-08-2012, 12:47 PM

If you delete a file the name information is also deleted, this is why you got the names in that way.
If you search for a word in your files try it with grep:

Code:

grep -r consulta_marcas /path/to/your/files

Aerosilver · 12-08-2012, 01:00 PM

Well. Now the terminal is findind the file who have that word. I hope can find.
I think this is all I can do. And if this can't find, then I have to begin again the script.

Thanks so much for all.