[CoLoCo] Urgent Help Needed: File system screw-up

[Joey Stanford]

Ringo,

So two things I noticed:

1) you want to use cp -aur usually to make backups because it
preserves permissions

2) you wanted to run "convert" which is another program which allows
you to convert in-situ (in place) an existing filesystem.  The best
way though is what you started to do...make a new partition or install
a new hard disk, install fresh, and copy over your data.

The way I do that with my systems is that I bought an external drive,
backed my data to it, and then if my computer goes Poof! then I always
have a backup. I don't use any fancy backup solutions, just this:

#!/bin/sh
echo ">>> /etc"
sudo cp -aur /etc/ /media/disk-2
echo ">>> /boot"
sudo cp -aur /boot/ /media/disk-2
echo ">>> /home"
sudo cp -aur /home/joey/ /media/disk-2

because it's fast, and copies the data I'm most likely to break.

There is no easy way to recovery your data now that you've formatted
it.  You can start by making a FIRE CD and attempting data recovery:

http://biatchux.dmzs.com/

J


On 8/21/07, Ringo Kamens <2600denver at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, so here's the situation. I wanted to get a fresh install of ubuntu
> but still back up the old data.
> I took the data on /dev/sda2 (my old linux partition which mounted as
> /) and copied it over to /dev/hda12 using cp and the f/r/p flags. I
> was copying from an ext2 to an ext3 partition, but it worked. Then, I
> installed my new ubuntu install on /dev/sda2.
>
> Once it was done installing, I got to the grub boot menu and had a
> choice of booting from /dev/sda2 (new system) or /dev/sda12 (old
> system) and for kicks I chose the old system. It didn't boot at all,
> and I'm guessing it was because of the new, fancier file system. It
> was on ext2 before and now it had to deal with ext3. So I decided to
> reformat the partition over to ext2 to make it work. I booted the
> ubuntu live cd, disabled automounting, and did "sudo gparted". I then
> went to /dev/sda12 and chose "format to" ext2 thinking it would
> convert the partition, not completely erase it. Now I can't see ANY of
> my data and this was over a year of work I had on there and I urgently
> need some of the files.
>
> The good news is, only the partition table has been overwritten and I
> think I can recover most of the data but I don't know how. Does
> anybody have any suggestions? I would *really* appreciate any help you
> could give me on this, seeing as how important it is that I get this
> data back.
> Comrade Ringo Kamens
>
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