[RLUG] Disappearing data
Dennis Bagley
dbagley at 775.net
Thu Jan 5 14:07:58 PST 2006
Grant,
I was basically on auto pilot while installing Ubuntu 5.10 and other
than directing everything to the second drive
made no other changes from defaults.
Dennis
On Thu, 2006-01-05 at 14:05 -0800, Grant Kelly wrote:
> >From the info you've given, here is my theory:
>
> In the installation process, did you attempt to use your home
> directory from your old drive as your home directory for the new
> installation?
>
> I suspect the installer may have formatted a partition, but when it
> was reformatted, some remnants of the old partition ( i.e. directory
> structure) remained intact and accessible, but the files within these
> directories are not.
>
> I'm no expert with file systems, but depending on which file system
> you formatted the partition with, I think it might be possible to
> recover the files that could still be on disk, just "unlinked" from
> the file system.
>
> Anyone seen anything like that happen before?
>
> Grant
>
>
>
>
> On 1/5/06, Dennis Bagley <dbagley at 775.net> wrote:
>
> I did a history | grep rm and also on xargs in my user and
> root. No joy - didn't happen.
>
> And Sebastian is right in that it almost appears to be a roll
> back - EXCEPT all the
> directories I have created since I installed this version of
> Ubuntu are there, just no data!
>
> if it were truly some kind of roll back - wouldn't it have
> wiped them too?
>
> I would almost suspect some kind of virus/worm but I have
> never heard of such an
> animal on Linux. AND I don't think a virus/worm running
> inside of VMWare could do such damage
> for a Windows VM. Besides, my virtual machine was also wiped
> out.
>
> Dennis
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 2006-01-05 at 12:51 -0800, Ben Johnson wrote:
>
> > is there a possibility you did something like:
> >
> > rm -rf *
> >
> > or...
> >
> > find . -type f | xargs rm -f
> >
> > in the wrong directory or something like that? it happens to everyone
> > eventually, at least once. Usually because of some cut and paste
> > maneuver gone horribly wrong or a goofy typo or because you forget to
> > escape the crazy astarisk, spaces and/or ampersands in a filename.
> >
> > or, maybe you moved everything accidentally. try updating your locate
> > database then use that to find the missing files.
> >
> > $ su -
> > # updatedb
> > # exit
> > $ locate whatImLookingFor.txt
> >
> > or, maybe you renamed files or directories so that they start with a
> > period, making them "invisible" by default. do -> 'ls -a'
> >
> > good luck,
> >
> > - Ben
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 05, 2006 at 10:46:01AM -0800, Dennis Bagley wrote:
> > > I sent this message to the rlug list (unfortunately several times) yesterday
> > > but got
> > > -0- feedback from anyone. I'm still looking for answers because I do NOT want
> > > to accidentally
> > > repeat the problem.
> > >
> > > So anyone have answers besides "42"?
> > >
> > > Thanks again
> > >
> > > Dennis
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Came into my office this morning to discover data missing from my PC.
> > >
> > > I am running Ubuntu 5.04
> > >
> > > On Friday everything seemed to be intact and okay. I have a dual drive system
> > > and decided to put the newest version of Ubuntu (5.10) on the second drive - it
> > > seemed to install just fine
> > > and I was also able to reboot into the older version. I must admit that I did
> > > not run any programs
> > > other than email and the browser before leaving my office for the weekend.
> > >
> > > HOWEVER, this morning when I tried to fire up VMWare - my virtual machine files
> > > were GONE. The directory
> > > where the files should have been was there but the files were not.
> > >
> > > Also missing:
> > > all the bookmarks in my browser (Firefox)
> > > all the pop3 mail on my system
> > > all of the contacts I had in Evolution
> > > all the "sent" mail
> > > all special email folders I had created that contained data.
> > >
> > >
> > > All my other primary files appear to be intact. Ideas? Have I been hacked?
> > > Did the the install
> > > screw something up? If so, how?
> > >
> > > (Fortunately I had a backup of the VM and the work data is stored on the
> > > server. But I did not have a backup of
> > > the email and contact info and that kinda torques me.)
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > >
> > > Dennis
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
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> >
> >
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