files disappeared

[Sterpu Victor]

------ Original Message ------
From: "Linda" <haniganwork at earthlink.net>
To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" 
<ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: 7/3/2015 10:01:01 PM
Subject: Re: files disappeared

>On 07/03/2015 01:14 PM, Petter Adsen wrote:
>>On Fri, 03 Jul 2015 11:15:11 -0500 Linda 
>>mailto:haniganwork at earthlink.net wrote:
>>>I am using Lubuntu 14.04.2. I was looking at a file in a directory 
>>>earlier this morning and everything was fine. Then I went back to 
>>>check something and every file has disappeared from that directory. 
>>>They do not appear in Trash and they do not appear in the terminal 
>>>window with a ls -la, however they do appear with locate. They also 
>>>don't appear in recent opened files in Libre Office even though that 
>>>is what I looked at them with. Any ideas how or why they disappeared 
>>>and how I can recover them?
>>The reason they still appear when you run locate is that locate 
>>searches a database, it doesn't actually search the file system like 
>>for example 'find' does. The database has not been updated since 
>>before the files were deleted, that's why they are still listed. 
>>How/why they disappeared? I don't know. Could be disk/filesystem 
>>corruption (in which case there should be hints in the system logs), 
>>the system might have been compromised, or it could just be user error 
>>(more likely, easy to do). Files generally don't delete themselves 
>>without trace. How to restore them? That depends on a lot of different 
>>things, but a search engine is your friend there. Assuming the 
>>filesystem is ext4, a quick search would look something like this: 
>>https://duckduckgo.com/?q=undelete+files+ext4&t=canonical&ia=qa Which 
>>returns several useful tips. The third hit from the top looks 
>>promising if you are looking for a quick fix. Skimming through a few 
>>of the other hits would probably be a very good idea, as data recovery 
>>can be a complex process. It could be useful to read up on a couple of 
>>different ways of doing things before deciding what approach to take. 
>>Note: You should avoid installing anything on, and performing as few 
>>writes as possible to the filesystem the files were on until you have 
>>recovered as much data as possible. Make an image of the filesystem on 
>>another device if you can (you can use 'dd' for this), and/or do the 
>>recovery from a live CD. Any writes to the filesystem can overwrite 
>>the space the deleted files occupied, making recovery next to 
>>impossible. Petter
>>
>Accidently deleting a file seems possible, deleting all of the files in 
>a directory but leaving the directory especially when just opening a 
>file with libre office seems unlikely, especially deleting them in a 
>way that doesn't put them in trash.  I have started wading through the 
>logs and will spend sometime on that but I'm not finding read/write 
>errors. It is ext4 and also is the first machine I have with a solid 
>state drive. It has made we wonder about file system/disk stability so 
>I am busy backing up.  I figured that was the case with locate I had 
>used it to see if I had somehow accidentally moved them. The find 
>suggestion is helpful. Any idea what sort of messages I should be 
>looking for if it is a filesystem/disk issue  a much greater concern 
>than the lost files.
>            Thanks
>              Linda

Run updatedb and see if the files have been moved(with locate).

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