OH BOOP! a computer question.

[Mystic Muse]

okay. I just deleted something from the trash bin in Ubuntu 8.10. Is there any way to get it back or am I screwed?

before somebody asks why it happened. I thought I was deleting it from my flash drive. not the proper location on my MP3 player.

[Flame of Anor]

Pretend you're your friend and call the FBI and tell them it was illegal porn or something. They will use their FBI skillz to retrieve it and then you can tell them it was all a joke and thank you for getting the music back, and they'll put you in jail for manipulating the FBI for your own devious motives.

On second thought, don't do that.

[SurlySeraph]

Did you back up your hard drive or have a restore point before deleting it? If so, I think you can restore to that point, copy what you deleted onto an external memory source (like your MP3 player, or just attach the file to an email and send it to yourself), and then restore again back to normal. However, all my experience is with Windows - I don't know if you can do that in Ubuntu. And that sounds kinda risky for the sake of one file, unless it's very important.

[golentan]

What Gandalf said, only take it to a computer specialist. If it's worth it, most cities (even small ones) will have a store that can recover data of crashed or wiped hard drive. Unless you've already written over the relevant part.

It can get costly. I know a trashed hard drive can cost up to 400 dollars to retrieve where I am. An intact and mostly present and correct drive should be cheaper. I'd say unless it's vital, it's probably still cheaper just to rebuy any lost mp3s, unless you lost a lot. You could always call for an estimate.

[RS14]

What Gandalf said, only take it to a computer specialist. If it's worth it, most cities (even small ones) will have a store that can recover data of crashed or wiped hard drive. Unless you've already written over the relevant part.

It can get costly. I know a trashed hard drive can cost up to 400 dollars to retrieve where I am. An intact and mostly present and correct drive should be cheaper. I'd say unless it's vital, it's probably still cheaper just to rebuy any lost mp3s, unless you lost a lot. You could always call for an estimate.

All they do in a case like this is take the HD, run some off-the-shelf software, and see if it works.

Try this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk). I have no idea if it works as advertised.

Also, I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but it might be better to not use the partition or drive in question until you've recovered the files, if possible. Otherwise there is a risk that the data will be overwritten, rather than just marked as missing. Thus, perhaps you should use someone else's computer to burn the disk, unless you've got a separate partition you should use.

[golentan]

All they do in a case like this is take the HD, run some off-the-shelf software, and see if it works.

Try this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TestDisk). I have no idea if it works as advertised.

Also, I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but it might be better to not use the partition or drive in question until you've recovered the files, if possible. Otherwise there is a risk that the data will be overwritten, rather than just marked as missing. Thus, perhaps you should use someone else's computer to burn the disk, unless you've got a separate partition you should use.

Not necessarily. In the case of my local store, they actually can scan it for microcharges. The way the FBI does.

[valadil]

"apt-cache search delete recover" shows e2undel, ext3grep, magicrescue, and recover as applications that might help. I can't vouch for any of them and I'm not sure if they apply to files deleted from the trash instead of rm.

[RS14]

Not necessarily. In the case of my local store, they actually can scan it for microcharges. The way the FBI does.

"Although Gutmann's theory may be correct, there's no practical evidence that overwritten data can be recovered. Moreover, there are good reasons to think that it cannot." [Wikipedia: Data Recovery]

In any case, the method proposed by Gutmann requires an electron microscope.

I'm pretty sure the claims of your local store are just lies designed to sell their services.

In this particular case, either the file is not yet overwritten, in which case they'll just use off-the-shelf software, because it works as well as anything else, and at a fraction of the cost. Or it is overwritten, in which case recovery is mostly theoretical.

[Emlyn]

A google search for "retrieve files from recycle bin" (or something similar) will bring up some programs that you could try. The odds are pretty iffy, once it's deleted the only way it can be recovered is if the section of the hard drive that it was written on isn't overwritten again. If the latter is the case, you'd have to pay someone (as far as I know).

[golentan]

"Although Gutmann's theory may be correct, there's no practical evidence that overwritten data can be recovered. Moreover, there are good reasons to think that it cannot." [Wikipedia: Data Recovery]

In any case, the method proposed by Gutmann requires an electron microscope.

I'm pretty sure the claims of your local store are just lies designed to sell their services.

In this particular case, either the file is not yet overwritten, in which case they'll just use off-the-shelf software, because it works as well as anything else, and at a fraction of the cost. Or it is overwritten, in which case recovery is mostly theoretical.

Overwritten no. Detagged or Degaussed material yes. The Gutmann method is entirely and specifically aimed at completely purging a drive in a secure manner by overwriting, to remove the (theoretical) possibility of remanence from other forms of overwriting. That isn't what a simple delete does, in 99% of cases, which is why computer forensics exists as a viable field.

Now, some computers will degauss, but even that's rare. If your computer does degauss, if it is an AC current you can use a more sensitive piece of equipment to read of the disc, because it isn't actually overwritten, just reduced charge. That's what I was referring to, but it was sort of a worst case scenario. My office requires degaussification. We use an AC degausser. My boss is not computer literate. I have been tasked with recovering lost material before. They're not selling me a line here, believe me.

Now, my assumption was that even if none of the data has done anything but been detagged, writing anything new to the hard drive (like a recovery program, even a free one) holds risks, and it's better to have a professional use their equipment, existing files, and expertise rather than attempt to do it on your own and overwrite the very material you're trying to preserve unless you know what you're doing already. Simultaneously, I assume that employing professional services is cheaper than buying a second hard drive, and working out how you're going to put everything together, and is less of a headache in any case, for you and any friend's whose framework you'd hijack in order to recover your material.

And that, as always, the less you know the more dangerous you are, the one exception being when you know just enough terminology to get yourself stuck at the bottom of a well and ask the internet to shovel dirt down on you to climb back up. The sort of level where you are clearly intelligent enough to try wiping unwanted material, but not knowledgeable enough to double check all file names and dependencies and pointers and blah blah blah before emptying your trash.

Please stop me if I've made any false leaps here. I'm not trying to be mean, I have faith in you kyuubi. But there are times you want professional help with problems, because otherwise you wind up being "cupholder guy" if you know that story.

And RS14, maybe have a little more faith in professionals. Computer geeks and policemen are not out to steal your candy for the low low price of 49.95. They almost always show judgement and compassion, and if you get a bad one you know what to avoid. And calling them for help just for an estimate cannot possibly hurt.