Ubuntu – Accidentally deleted a folder

data-recovery

I've been using Ubuntu 12.04 and accidentally deleted a folder using Shift+Del.

Does anyone have any idea how to recover the folder?

Best Answer

Yes, you can use extundelete command. (extundelete is a utility to recover deleted files from ext3/ext4 partition.)

Note that the partition must be unmounted before you recover. In most cases, you will have to shut down your computer and boot using an Ubuntu LiveCD/LiveUSB to be able to this.

Steps to recover:

Install extundelete with:
```
sudo apt-get install extundelete
```

Usage example:

sudo extundelete --restore-directory /home/myself/Documents/deleted_folder/ /dev/sda1

The /dev/sda1 is the device name where the deleted data was.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to recover or create deleted ‘Documents’ folder in Home folder

To create a new Documents folder

Open home folder > right click > new folder. Name it Documents

If the icon is incorrect then right click on the new Documents folder > properties. Click on the folder icon, this will bring up a select custom icon window.

Browse to File System > usr > share > icons > Humanity > places > 48 & select the 1st folder_documents.svg. This should restore the icon to your Downloads folder

Then gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs or browse to file. You'll see this line - XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"

edit it to this & save. Then log out/in

XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"

Ubuntu – Accidentally deleted the “/usr/share” folder

You need to reinstall all applications which have files in /usr/share.

Boot system from Recovery Mode with root prompt.
Remount rootfs to read-write mode with mount -o rw,remount /.
Raise up ethernet interface and get IP address from DHCP server: dhclient enp0s3 (check correct interface name in ip a or ifconfig -a).

Specify DNS server by

rm /etc/resolv.conf
echo "nameserver 192.168.1.1" > /etc/resolv.conf

(change 192.168.1.1 to yours gateway/router)

You need to fix the dpkg package as it misses the /usr/share/dpkg/cputable file (otherwise you will face the "E: error reading the cpu table" on any apt/apt-get command)
```
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/d/dpkg/dpkg_1.19.0.5ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb
dpkg -i dpkg_1.19.0.5ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb
```
or installing it from cache:
```
dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/dpkg_*.deb
```
update package cache:
```
apt-get update
```

reinstall essential componenets

apt-get install --reinstall debconf linux-base
mkdir /usr/share/python
apt-get install --reinstall python2.7-minimal python3-minimal

and then use one-liner below:
```
apt-get install --reinstall $(dpkg -S /usr/share/ | sed 's/,//g' | sed 's/: \/usr\/share//g')
```
Above:
- dpkg -S /usr/share/ shows the list of comma-separated packages
- sed 's/,//g' - removes commas
- sed 's/: \/usr\/share//g' - removes : /usr/share in the end
This part may fail with messages about some packages. For example on my VM I have had a problem with bsdmainutils, so I reinstalled them with:
```
dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/bsdmainutils_*.deb
```
and then reran one-liner above.
fix broken packages
```
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get install -f
```

finally fix /etc/resolv.conf link by

rm /etc/resolv.conf
ln -s /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

reboot.

Note: the resulting fixed system do not show any problems while running sudo apt-get check or sudo debsums --all --changed.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to recover or create deleted ‘Documents’ folder in Home folder

Ubuntu – Accidentally deleted the “/usr/share” folder

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