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Thread View: comp.os.linux.misc
2 messages
2 total messages Started by Alexander List Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
Restore the contents of accidentally overwritten file
#394
Author: Alexander List
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
66 lines
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/

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Re: Restore the contents of accidentally overwritten file
#395
Author: Dave Sparks
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 00:00
30 lines
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: 
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