XFS Folder deleted - Anyway to recover


elbobo

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I should learn not to do file management while tired.

I was moving files from my windows system to the server and thought the folder I was moving from was highlighted and I hit delete. I have now deleted a rather large directory on the server.

Is there any way to recover these files?

 

If not is there any way to see what files were deleted so I can see if there is a way to get them again?

 

I understand I brought this fully upon myself, and if it's gone forever it's a learning experience like no other...

 

Thank you in advance

 

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Thank you, I will be adding that... they have not been able to chart the depth of my stupidity, I'm sure this will happen again.  :-\

~7 years ago I did that to my wife's ENTIRE collection of family pictures.  After the pots and ash-trays stopped being thrown at my head, I started looking at backups / redundant storage.
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I do have redundant off-site backup for my personal documents and photos (after my Lacie NAS cooked it's MB and all data was irretrievable), it's for the stuff that I could get again in theory that I do not...sadly of all the "I could get it again" the folder I deleted is the most difficult, mostly because I don't remember what all is in there.

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Figure I'd post a quick update... of course if people follow the advice of Squid (which they should) they won't need this but I had run a program called Cathy to catalog all of my media, I was able to find that and use it to (I hope) rebuild what I lost. The freeware program is written by a guy named Robert Vasicek and it is a very quick little media catalog tool that I had forgotten about until just now. I was unsure about linking to external sites on here but if it is OK I will come back and add the URL to his site.

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I'm not sure how to recover the data, but I'd stop the array and pull the disk for starters.  If the array is written to your chances of getting data off it will decrease exponentially...

 

You could pull the disk and do a "new config" although be careful and ask for help if you're in any doubt.  Only issue is you may need a free disk/extra disk to extract the recovered data to before adding the disk back to the array, I'm not sure...

 

Then put it somewhere very safe and await someone here to come along and advise you, I have seen some impressive data recovery happening in these parts in the past..

 

To make you feel a bit better, we've all done it...

 

I was "lucky" in two ways.  One I didn't get anything thrown at my head as it was my own data, I'll be damned if I'm going to headbutt pots and ashtrays (not that I have any anymore, 3 months quit!  ;D ) and secondly I subsequently managed to recover the vast majority as I found an old forgotten backup...

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<Sigh>  BACKUPS !!  [ http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31020.0 ]

 

If it's important enough to create a fault-tolerant server to store it on, it's almost certainly important enough to back it up !!

 

Yeah, I think he's learnt his lesson Gary, no need to rub salt in the wound, it's Christmas after all...  ;)

 

It is a good post you made in the link though, I remember reading it myself and taking heed.

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I had run a program called Cathy to catalog all of my media

This little app was genius, thanks! I've been looking for something to catalog what is on each disk, with cathy I just put in the UNC path for the disk, hit enter and you're set! Now I have absolute control IF someday I need to know what was on a specific disk. I have backup, but the backup is on a raid5 system (for now) and are not a per disk backup just one single share, so this makes everything so much easier! Thanks again, you just made my day! Happy holidays! :Dhttp://cathy.en.softonic.com/

 

Edit: Here's the developer's site: http://www.mtg.sk/rva/

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<Sigh>  BACKUPS !!  [ http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31020.0 ]

 

If it's important enough to create a fault-tolerant server to store it on, it's almost certainly important enough to back it up !!

 

I actually read that post while my first drives were doing their preclear. I did heed your advice when it comes to all personally created data (offsite). I do not have redundancy on anything I did not create. I consider any loss of that data an acceptable risk and I have accepted that I lost it today. Oh, and you can let me have it, even on Christmas, if someone clicks on my post and follows your link and creates backups then it's a good deed.

 

CHMBM Congrats on quitting! It's a hard road but one that is worth it and you've gotten through what I felt was the hardest part.

 

Strike, I'm glad you liked that app, I forgotten I had it, it's one of those things that I ran so I could search quickly for items but don't have many times when I need it, until today!  :D Thank you for posting the link, I hadn't made it back to my computer until now.

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Didn't mean to "let you have it" ... I was just expressing frustration at yet-another loss due to no backups.

 

Actually you're in much better shape than many => good backups of your important data and a conscious decision that it's "okay" to lose other stuff -- AND a catalog of what that "other stuff" is (even though you had forgotten that you had it).    Having a list of the stuff you intentionally chose not to backup is a good step in the right direction -- it doesn't eliminate the hassle of having to reacquire it all, but at least it gives you a checklist of just what you need to replace.

 

Insurance -- whether for data or personal possessions -- is always a choice about what you want to insure (i.e. backup in the case of data); and what you don't need to insure (because you're willing to accept the loss).    I have some of my wife's jewelry insured; most of it not.    I don't mind losing pieces worth a few hundred $$, but definitely don't want to absorb the loss of the more valuable pieces.    Data is the same concept -- although I think a lot of folks undervalue their data because they don't think of value of the time involved in obtaining it.

 

By the way, I had a look at the program you suggested -- VERY nice find.    I have directories of all of my disks that I created using Directory Printer ("printed" them to PDF's) ... but the search features in Cathy are a really nice feature.

Personally, I have very complete backups of EVERYTHING, so it's not likely I'd need that ... but I'll probably index everything with it anyway as just one more bit of "insurance"  :)

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I should learn not to do file management while tired.

I was moving files from my windows system to the server and thought the folder I was moving from was highlighted and I hit delete. I have now deleted a rather large directory on the server.

Is there any way to recover these files?

 

If not is there any way to see what files were deleted so I can see if there is a way to get them again?

 

I understand I brought this fully upon myself, and if it's gone forever it's a learning experience like no other...

 

Thank you in advance

 

Check this out...

 

http://www.ufsexplorer.com/download_stdr.php

 

I got over 90% recovery when I did the same thing to my TV share, which spanned 7 drives.

 

YMMV

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...Check this out...

 

http://www.ufsexplorer.com/download_stdr.php

 

I got over 90% recovery when I did the same thing to my TV share, which spanned 7 drives.

...

 

Sounds like a good tool ... HOWEVER => XFS is not listed as one of the file systems it supports.    Did you use it on an XFS share?    [or Reiser - which IS supported]

XFS is listed

 

Mea Culpa => Missed it (scanned right past that line ... probably because of the SGI prefix)

 

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