Where are my files!!??

[matrix02]

I was having trouble getting me laptop with Mandrake to boot to the GUI like it used to before a crash. I decided to do a repair, using "rescue" option from boot disk. I re-installed boot loader...this did nothing. So I booted to the install disks and tried to reinstall LILO. When it asked about partitions that it found I choose use existing..instead of format new...I thought this was my safe bet. Anyway..now I have a new build with none of my previous settings, and my "home/dev" directory is missing now and that has all my scripts!! AAhhhhh!!! Sorry! I tried browsing around and could not find old directories.

Do you think my files are gone? How do I undelete?

[Flatline]

Unfortunately, I think your files are gone. If you had done a custom partition setup, you could have just restored the old mount points.

[matrix02]

There are no undelete utilities?

[drakebasher]

There are no undelete utilities?

Not if you reinstalled on top of everything. Some users set up their system with a separate /home partition specifically so they can reinstall or upgrade without wiping out their private files.

[shalamabobbi]

Depending on your distro it may have put your home directory on a separate partition from the swap, etc. If it made three partitions for you initially you should be ok. After a reinstall or repair you should still be able to access your previous home directory or rather it should still be intact AS your home directory unless that partition was damaged as well.
In windows XP there is software you can buy to find and read deleted files as long as they haven't yet been overwritten. I suspect something similiar must exist for the Linux environment. Try Googling. Good luck..

[logan5]

Well, there probably all gone, but something you might take a look at is knoppix std - http://www.knoppix-std.org/
It come with some forensics tools (among other things) that might help you.

Here's a list of the forensics tools that it has on it. Take notice of stuff like "testdisk : test and recover lost partitions"

forensics
/usr/bin/forensics/

* sleuthkit 1.66 : extensions to The Coroner's Toolkit forensic toolbox.
* autopsy 1.75 : Web front-end to TASK. Evidence Locker defaults to /mnt/evidence
* biew : binary viewer
* bsed : binary stream editor
* consh : logged shell (from F.I.R.E.)
* coreography : analyze core files
* dcfldd : US DoD Computer Forensics Lab version of dd
* fenris : code debugging, tracing, decompiling, reverse engineering tool
* fatback : Undelete FAT files
* foremost : recover specific file types from disk images (like all JPG files)
* ftimes : system baseline tool (be proactive)
* galleta : recover Internet Explorer cookies
* hashdig : dig through hash databases
* hdb : java decompiler
* mac-robber : TCT's graverobber written in C
* md5deep : run md5 against multiple files/directories
* memfetch : force a memory dump
* pasco : browse IE index.dat
* photorec : grab files from digital cameras
* readdbx : convert Outlook Express .dbx files to mbox format
* readoe : convert entire Outlook Express .directory to mbox format
* rifiuti : browse Windows Recycle Bin INFO2 files
* secure_delete : securely delete files, swap, memory....
* testdisk : test and recover lost partitions
* wipe : wipe a partition securely. good for prep'ing a partition for dd
* and other typical system tools used for forensics (dd, lsof, strings, grep, etc.)

If that doesn't look like it will work do some google searchs for "forensics tools" and you can probably find some others.