Re: Help!!! undelete for ext3fs!!!
chomiak@chartermi.net (Cheryl Homiak) writes:
> Well, it really is too late now, as this was my root partition and I
> couldn't unmount it immediately even if I had known what to do.
>
Maybe you could still save some fragments of the file? or if you are
*really* lucky, the relvant inodes still have not been overwritten?
In such cases it's nice to have another Linux system on removable
media like a CD-R or similar. This way you could have simply rebooted
from this second system and repair from there.
There is a *very* nice full Debian live system on a single CD-R which
runs directly from CD without the need of an installation called
KNOPPIX. Boots right into a full featured KDE session with full access
of hundreds of applications.
Check out "http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/"; to learn more about it.
I use it as full featured rescue disk and installation media for new
desktop installations.
> for backups, I'm really sorry but i can't figure out what a MO disk
> is.
>
This is a magneto optical disk. It is similar to ZIP and floppy disks
in size but has capacities from 128 MB up to 2.3 GB and is virtually
undestroyable by magnetic influences, etc. There exist 5.25" disks
and drives with capacities up to 9.1GB as well. MO is IMHO the only
really safe way for storing any data, albeit not very widespread and
the drives tend to be quite costly. But one can easily aquire older
models at eBay for cheaper prices. That's what i did. I have a 5.2GB
drive from Sony and a 640MB drive from Fujitsu. ;-)
For more information, check out "http://mo.fujitsu.com/global/";,
"http://www.sony-cp.com/_E/Products/Storage/MO/rmo-s551.html";,
"http://www.sony-cp.com/_E/Products/Storage/MO/Index.html";, and
"http://www.olympus-europa.com/mo/";.
Maybe a CD-RW might be of some practical use, but what i like so much
about MO disks is that one can use them like any other file system.
> This incident also points out the wisdom in having your linux system
> mounted on several partitions so that in cases like this you can unmount
> the partition immediately.
>
Just take into account that such deep "wisdom" shouldn't force it's
cleverness upon oneself and become impractical. The only file system
layout i'd bother about for a desktop machine would consist of only
three partions. One each for "swap space", "/" and "/home/". Just for
private use, anything else would be only overkill.
If you don't mind reinstalling programs from Debian packages, backups
should only be made regularily from "/etc/", "/home/" and "/var/".
But restoring (and cloning!) a system from a full backup might save
quite some time in case of an actual incident.
> As for the trash can, it wouldn't do any good if your hard disk breaks but
> could be an asset in momentarily slips of the fingers (or the brain) such
> as I had.
>
Yes, in this case it might prove to be useful. Generally, it's a good
idea *not* to trust oneself. Therefore it's as well a bad idea to work
only as the super user. Been there, done that, suffered from the
consequences, and, rightfully so, got no t-shirt. ;-)
Cheers, P. *8^)
--
------------ Paul Seelig <pseelig@uni-mainz.de> --------------
African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
Johannes Gutenberg-University - Forum 6 - 55099 Mainz/Germany
----------------- http://ntama.uni-mainz.de ------------------
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