[olug] *sigh* Need a Linux / ext3 unerase tool...

[Rob Townley]

On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Dan Linder <dan at linder.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 11:19, T. J. Brumfield <enderandrew at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ext3 is really hard to recover files from sadly. The best thing to do
>> is not to write *anything* to that drive for the time being.
>>
>> The last time I looked, this was the best solution:
>>
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
>>
>
>
> Thanks for the pointers (Ben, TJ, and Jordan)...
>
> Sadly my files are only a few home-made scripts so I don't have a good
> template for them to use, and since they are so small I doubt there's much
> these can do.
>
> I did see that it's a "feature" of ext3 that it over-writes the first few
> sectors of a file after deletion.  (
> http://batleth.sapienti-sat.org/projects/FAQs/ext3-faq.html)
>
> Sadly, I was moving files from my backup system (after freshly reformatting
> my desktop) when I accidentally deleted a full directory instead of just a
> file.  Didn't notice it until rsync had finished and _both_copies were now
> gone. :-(
>
> Live and learn I guess. :-)
>
> Dan
>
> Maybe I'll use "dd if=/dev/sda6 | strings | less" and search for some key
> comments in the code that I do remember... :-/
>
> --
> ***************** ************* *********** ******* ***** *** **
> "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
>   (Who can watch the watchmen?)
>   -- from the Satires of Juvenal
> "I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them."
>   -- Isaac Asimov (Author)
> ** *** ***** ******* *********** ************* *****************
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> https://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>

you might look at the variants of both ddrescue and dd_rescue instead
of plain dd?  They _might_ get you a little further.