HELP!! Accidentally deleted loads of ripped albums :(

[lawrence2357]

Ok I've been a bit stupid but them in not a techy person. I was using my W10 laptop to delete some duplicate files on my Vortexbox ripper before I copy them to my back up HDD. I found 2 folders, one called Various and the other various. I found that they have exactly the same albums in, about 200 I've ripped, so thought I can delete one of them to make space.

Anyway now both folders are empty. Thinking about it, if Linux is case sensitive for file paths and Windows isn't, then Linux might create 2 folders but Windows thinks they're the same one, so shows the same files in both folders in File Explorer. Doh but then would you expect an average person to think of this?

So the situation is, I've lost about 200 albums of the 2000 or so I'd ripped, but no way of knowing which ones. So I'm rather hoping someone knows a way of me repointing the files like a Windows recycle bin, in the hope that doing a delete in Windows file explorer just removes the file paths rather than the underlying data on a Linux system like Vortexbox.

Otherwise any ideas??

[garym]

If you use something like WinSCP program (running on Windows machine) to login to your VB, do you see the files still there in the location: /storage/music/flac

And I hope you keep a backup disk of files, copied from the VB or using the built in VB backup process. If so, are most of the files located there?

[garym]

And even if the files don't show up via WinSCP, deleting them via Windows Explorer didn't actually remove all the files. They are still there, just not pointed to any longer. There are ways to restore deleted files, but that's beyond my knowledge. Google "restore files deleted linux" and see what you find. And the less you do with the VB from this moment on, the greater odds that the files are sill located there. (that is, don't rip any new files or install any new things on the VB).

[dyohn]

Do you have a backup?

[lawrence2357]

Not of this latest round of rips, I usually back up regularly when the kids go away for the weekend with my wife, but with the lockdown I've lost all track of time and not done it for about a year

[lawrence2357]

If you use something like WinSCP program (running on Windows machine) to login to your VB, do you see the files still there in the location: /storage/music/flac

And I hope you keep a backup disk of files, copied from the VB or using the built in VB backup process. If so, are most of the files located there?

They weren't showing in that folder in Windows File Explorer but I'll try this Win SCP. See last post re back up.

[lawrence2357]

And even if the files don't show up via WinSCP, deleting them via Windows Explorer didn't actually remove all the files. They are still there, just not pointed to any longer. There are ways to restore deleted files, but that's beyond my knowledge. Google "restore files deleted linux" and see what you find. And the less you do with the VB from this moment on, the greater odds that the files are sill located there. (that is, don't rip any new files or install any new things on the VB).

I'll do that thanks I ripped one album before realising what had happened so hopefully not much is lost...

[garym]

Here's a few links I found on restoring deleted files on fedora linux (which is what VB runs). I have no idea if any of this is good info. You'll need some sort of Windows Terminal program to login to VB and run command lines. I use "CryptoTerm".

https://www.cryptoterm.com/index.php...mid=77&lang=en

when you connect with cryptoTERM you'll be asked for location, which will be the IP address of the VB. For example, 192.168.1.125. But yours will be slightly different for last 4 digits. Then you'll have to login to VB, which unless you have changed it, is USER: root and PASSWORD: vortexbox

https://itsfoss.com/recover-deleted-files-linux/
https://likegeeks.com/recover-deleted-files-on-linux/
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...-deleted-files

[pclinux1]

The first link explains testdisk in a clear manner. I am currently using it to recover videos from an external drive. There is also a free Windows program [to see what is there] program called recuva. I think it costs a few dollars to recover a larger number of files

[lawrence2357]

Thanks I tried test disk but it said no such file/command and I tried 2 commands to install I found online, one just failed and the other tried and said it couldn't find it on any of the mirrors. The other command on those links to find deleted files said no files exist

[garym]

Are those sudo commands? Vortexbox is based on Fedora linux, which I don't think uses "sudo" commands. See this link, but again, I know nothing about linux, I can only follow step by step instructions.

https://fedoramagazine.org/howto-use-sudo/

[garym]

or try this:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...sudo-in-fedora

and if your VB is 2.5, it uses "dnf" instead of "yum"

[garym]

By the way, to help others that might see this thread, the Vortexbox setup shows its files in TWO different places. I think one is read only location and the other is editable location. But the important point is that there is only ONE actual copy of the files, even though showing in two different subdirectories. I know this doesn't help the OP now, but might help others that get confused.

[pclinux1]

The gparted live cd from here --> https://gparted.org/livecd.php contains testdisk. Just download the iso image and burn it to a cd or usb and boot to the cd or usb..