SliTaz Forum

lexeii

Administrator

Registered: 2012-03-21

Posts: 1,853

My epic fail: lost home files

Hi there!

First I want to say, our extundelete package is unusable. And I want to ask our maintainers to fix it if possible. Details: extundelete throws many similar errors:

[c]extundelete: No such file or directory while creating directory[/c]
Seems, it can't create folder for restored files and folders. So, I get absolutely empty folder_for_restored_files after "restoring" is finished. By the way, commandline is:

[c]# extundelete --restore-directory /home/tux -o /tmp -- /dev/sda7[/c]
Where is /tmp -- folder for restored files, /dev/sda7 -- device file for my SliTaz installation, and /home/tux -- folder to restore within that SliTaz installation.

Second, if you are in trouble and want to restore removed files -- switch your SliTaz off as soon as possible. Alas, I noticed it too late -- I continue to edit and save files, install packages, etc. So, chances to restore files are lowered on every file save / modifications.

To restore files boot Live CD -- it will not modify your HDD if you not ask for it.

Tools selection: photorec is not too useful; I've got a complete mess of file chunks.

extundelete not works properly, so I converted one (older version) from deb package found on pkgs.org. Version is older, and commandline is different:

[c]# extundelete --restore-all --output-dir /tmp -- /dev/sda7[/c]
It means: restore all files and folders from /dev/sda7 and put restored files to the /tmp/RECOVERED_FILES folder (it can't --restore-folder).

Finished, extundelete restores many of my folders and files, but I lost many of my projects files, personal correspondence, etc. For ever. Sad...

Make backups! Now is the right time for it ;-)

lexeii

Administrator

Registered: 2012-03-21

Posts: 1,853

Re: My epic fail: lost home files

Thank you, Pascal for changes.

Alas, still not works. Here few lines from strace if it helps:

[c]# strace -o /tmp/strace.log -e trace=all \
extundelete --restore-directory /home/tux -o /tmp -- /dev/sda7

. . .
pread64(3, "$\201S\6ea\372Ti\303\211Uea\372T\1\10"..., 4096, 1519828992) = 4096
pread64(3, "$\201S\6ea\372Ti\303\211Uea\372T\1\10"..., 4096, 1496784896) = 4096
mkdir("", 0755)                         = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "extundelete", 11)             = 11
write(2, ": ", 2)                       = 2
write(2, "No such file or directory", 25) = 25
write(2, " ", 1)                        = 1
write(2, "while creating directory ", 25) = 25
write(2, "\n", 1)                       = 1
. . .[/c]
Executing command "mkdir" with empty directory name.

christophe

Member

Registered: 2011-04-17

Posts: 432

Re: My epic fail: lost home files

FWIW, i complained a while ago about Slitaz not having a decent backup software - I am using Backintime, which I hae transfered to slitaz; I notice however that "somebody" had heard me and I have seen BIT being available in the repository a long while ago.

I tend to use 2 backup sofware, flip flop, sometime on different media; it has proven helpful

Christophe

bellard

Administrator

Registered: 2011-03-28

Posts: 657

Re: My epic fail: lost home files

http://pkgs.slitaz.org/search.sh?tags=backup