Last week we had a look at recovering lost files on a Windows system so this week we shall have a look at recovering deleted files on a Linux system instead. For the purpose of this tutorial I will be using a Linux Mint 13 live CD to recover files from a Ubuntu 12.04 system but the steps are the same for all the major distributions.
NOTE:
The partition from which you are attempting to recover files MUST BE UNMOUNTED hence why I am using a live CD.
Boot the system from the live CD. When the desktop environment is reached you will need to install a package called extundelete (you can install a limited number of packages when using a live CD) so open up a terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install extundelete
Once installed we need to check the designations of the partitions on the hard drive so type:
sudo fdisk -l
For the purpose of this tutorial I will attempt to recover deleted files from the /dev/sda1 partition so in your terminal type:
sudo extundelete /dev/sda1 –restore-all
This will locate any deleted files on the /dev/sda1 partition and restore them to a directory called ‘Recovered Files‘.
About the Author
Hi I’m Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows, Mac and Linux based IT Support to small businesses in Stirling, Alloa and Falkirk.
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I haven’t tried to recover data files off an etx2 partition. Your best bet is to search using Google.
hey ,
will u have any idea for recoving data from ext2.
thanks Chris its very useful for me
To be honest I haven’t used testdisk so I can’t comment. Glad you enjoyed the article!!
Hi Chris!
I enjoyed this article. I’ve only used one software for file recovery and that was the testdisk/photorec suite. How would you compare extundelete to these softwares? From the looks of it, testdisk may provide more granular functionality.
Thanks again, and keep up the good content!