Thread View: comp.os.linux.misc
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2 total messages
Started by Alexander List
Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
Restore the contents of accidentally overwritten file
Author: Alexander List
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
66 lines
2983 bytes
2983 bytes
Hi! Being absolutely stooopid, I did the following: I wanted to make a backup copy of my .netscape/bookmarks.html file because I have spent a week or so collecting material and sorting it. Well, Murphy did it again. I was on the wrong machine, and I did an ftp "get" instead of a "put" and so the contents of my original bookmark file has been overwritten. When I discovered my mistake, I have immediately disabled login for users and mounted the /home filesystem read-only. I am not so familiar with the internal structure of the ext2 fs, but I tried to find something with debugfs. All I can find out is this: ---snip--- debugfs: stat bookmarks.html Inode: 36732 Type: regular Mode: 0600 Flags: 0x0 Version: 1 User: 501 Group: 100 Size: 228 File ACL: 0 Directory ACL: 0 Links: 1 Blockcount: 2 Fragment: Address: 0 Number: 0 Size: 0 ctime: 0x329f5473 -- Fri Nov 29 22:24:03 1996 atime: 0x329c83e3 -- Wed Nov 27 19:09:39 1996 mtime: 0x329f5473 -- Fri Nov 29 22:24:03 1996 BLOCKS: 147724 TOTAL: 1 debugfs: ---snip--- I learned that the last modified field was set to 22:24:03, that was exactly the time when I commited my crime. Is there a chance of finding at least _some_ of the lost data? Again, I have _overwritten_ the file, is it possible to find some of the data? Thanks for any help!!! Best regards Alex -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Je me revolte, donc nous sommes. - Albert Camus Alexander List <alexlist@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at> http://www.sbox.tu-graz.ac.at/home/alexlist/ -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.3i mQCNAzKUShwAAAEEAKSeONtZF24pqL5eK3Q3PHJis0dI3uOKMFjOWwiwSyVyaKHp FCCmHCayDabMVgGUnjHxIUZj7Rmlz5RT1GGKMBSK67yFD0mGVrl8eGoH1bBDviGj S+quQ45SY/upp670EOqrxyp6pJk1uR+RjteFepzZ5am55tEMjGWTYnZjEXP1AAUR tEJBbGV4YW5kZXIgTS4gTGlzdCA8YWxleGxpc3RAc2JveC50dS1ncmF6LmFjLmF0 PiA0NDAyMDIwNzc0IDkzMzI1NTSJAJUDBRAylEocZZNidmMRc/UBAVyBA/9l8Qff Iuva0vmzrE4EbVfgonVjY4BKRVcB5QgxC9PTAILu2/aM4NyT8lOEhCjw4x5wzxLJ Z3FWw3kTe9R/r0RKU49SA1pE7Fge+sbdXH/Z7g+SLZ1myMVX3sZaVFDzhCOO0C7I FA4Izn2zQulIxsxcBaqEV5qIUW58cF7+JbJj6A== =SyLK -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Re: Restore the contents of accidentally overwritten file
Author: Dave Sparks
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
30 lines
1925 bytes
1925 bytes
In article <329F6039.71AA0FB7@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at>,
Alexander List <alexlist@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at> wrote:
>Well, Murphy did it again. I was on the wrong machine, and I did an
>ftp "get" instead of a "put" and so the contents of my original
>bookmark file has been overwritten. When I discovered my mistake,
>I have immediately disabled login for users and mounted the
>/home filesystem read-only.
[...]
>Again, I have _overwritten_ the file, is it possible to find some
>of the data?
Your only chance is if the file you "got" was smaller than what was
originally there. IOW, if you overwrote a 10K file with a 5K file,
you *MIGHT* be able to recover the last 5K. (Assuming the remaining
5K weren't subsequently overwritten by something else.)
I'm not that familar with low-level utilities for Linux, but there's
probably something that's similar to Norton Utilities for DOS which
will read absolute disk sectors.
--
Dave Sparks <dsparks@pobox.com> Home Page: http://www.pobox.com/~dsparks/
For info on receiving a FREE pager (or getting PAID to give away free
pagers), a FREE 16.0 cpm calling card (non-prepaid), or earning money
at home, visit:
http://www.pobox.com/~dsparks/mmsm.html
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