[KLUG Members] help for longtime (but novice) user who finally managed to misuse rm...?

[Steve Petersen]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.  I do keep backups of my key files, 
but I don't back up /everything/--for example my 50G of mp3s from my CD 
collection.  It just costs too much to have that redundant (especially 
since they're redundant in my CD's already, so to speak).  I was just 
hoping to find out which files had been erased so I could assess the 
damage, root for backups, re-rip lost mp3s, etc.  From the little 
research I did, you can't (easily) recover files in ext3 like you can in 
ext2, for a technical reason I don't understand well.

I'll try the rescuecd and see where it lets me write the logdump while 
the partition in question is not mounted (yes, it's all one partition, 
except /boot, as per RH8-for-Dummies recommendations of the time).

Thanks again!
Steve

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
>>>My home (user) directory--and logged in as a regular user.  So the  
>>>good news is, the system shouldn't be disturbed.  The bad news is,  
>>>the deleted files are of actual importance to me personally!
>>
>>This is why I have AT LEAST 2 copies of everything, sometimes 3, and  
>>always preach the importance of backups.
>>
>>>>I don't know about logdump, but maybe it's a jfs only command?
>>>>You need to run the ext2/3 commands on an ext3 partition.
>>>
>>>Yes, I think it's part of a JFS package.  I did run it on an ext3  
>>>partition, but /while/ that partition was mounted and being used.   
>>>(I only have one linux partition besides /boot.)  Should I reboot  
>>>to a rescuecd, with the linux partition unmounted, and run logdump  
>>>off that?  Where do I put the output file then?  I'm nervous to  
>>>reboot in case I destroy "evidence", but maybe I should.
>>
>>have any new files been written to the drive since the other files  
>>were deleted?
>>If so, the space the files occupied may have already been partially  
>>overwritten.
> 
> 
> And even the action of logging in and out of the workstation may do
> this.
> 
> 
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