[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Cheryl Homiak) writes: > Well, it really is too late now, as this was my root partition and I > couldn't unmount it immediately even if I had known what to do. > Maybe you could still save some fragments of the file? or if you are *really* lucky, the relvant inodes still have not been overwritten?
In such cases it's nice to have another Linux system on removable media like a CD-R or similar. This way you could have simply rebooted from this second system and repair from there. There is a *very* nice full Debian live system on a single CD-R which runs directly from CD without the need of an installation called KNOPPIX. Boots right into a full featured KDE session with full access of hundreds of applications. Check out "http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/"; to learn more about it. I use it as full featured rescue disk and installation media for new desktop installations. > for backups, I'm really sorry but i can't figure out what a MO disk > is. > This is a magneto optical disk. It is similar to ZIP and floppy disks in size but has capacities from 128 MB up to 2.3 GB and is virtually undestroyable by magnetic influences, etc. There exist 5.25" disks and drives with capacities up to 9.1GB as well. MO is IMHO the only really safe way for storing any data, albeit not very widespread and the drives tend to be quite costly. But one can easily aquire older models at eBay for cheaper prices. That's what i did. I have a 5.2GB drive from Sony and a 640MB drive from Fujitsu. ;-) For more information, check out "http://mo.fujitsu.com/global/";, "http://www.sony-cp.com/_E/Products/Storage/MO/rmo-s551.html";, "http://www.sony-cp.com/_E/Products/Storage/MO/Index.html";, and "http://www.olympus-europa.com/mo/";. Maybe a CD-RW might be of some practical use, but what i like so much about MO disks is that one can use them like any other file system. > This incident also points out the wisdom in having your linux system > mounted on several partitions so that in cases like this you can unmount > the partition immediately. > Just take into account that such deep "wisdom" shouldn't force it's cleverness upon oneself and become impractical. The only file system layout i'd bother about for a desktop machine would consist of only three partions. One each for "swap space", "/" and "/home/". Just for private use, anything else would be only overkill. If you don't mind reinstalling programs from Debian packages, backups should only be made regularily from "/etc/", "/home/" and "/var/". But restoring (and cloning!) a system from a full backup might save quite some time in case of an actual incident. > As for the trash can, it wouldn't do any good if your hard disk breaks but > could be an asset in momentarily slips of the fingers (or the brain) such > as I had. > Yes, in this case it might prove to be useful. Generally, it's a good idea *not* to trust oneself. Therefore it's as well a bad idea to work only as the super user. Been there, done that, suffered from the consequences, and, rightfully so, got no t-shirt. ;-) Cheers, P. *8^) -- ------------ Paul Seelig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -------------- African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies Johannes Gutenberg-University - Forum 6 - 55099 Mainz/Germany ----------------- http://ntama.uni-mainz.de ------------------
