Data Recovery From Accidentally Deleted Files or Crashed Drives in Ubuntu

Version 1.0
Author: Srijan Kishore 

This tutorial will help you to recover data from accidentally deleted data from Linux-file systems. This is a very drastic mistake by any user/admin which costs for huge penalties. This script will be a boon for newbies/expert for data management. I will be using TestDisk for data-recovery. Here I have simplified the task with the help of a script.

1. Background

TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software. Suppose you have a ext3/ext4 drive which got crashed/deleted with rm -rf or shift+delete like commands, with the help of TestDisk you can recover the data/file.
TestDisk can be used to
  • Fix partition table
  • Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions

Beside these functions TesdDisk have several functionality for the data maintenance/management

2. Requirement

I am using Ubuntu12.04 LTS on which I will be installing the TestDisk & implement the data recovery script on a crashed drive. This script works fine with the Ubuntu OS. Even if it happens that any of the harddisk gets deleted just connect the harddisk with the ubuntu machine & run the script to recover the data.

3. Script

#!/bin/bash
#######################################################################################################
#######################################################################################################
#######################################################################################################
######                                                                                          #######
######                                                                                          #######
######                 This script will help you to recover the accidentally                    #######
######                     deleted data from crashed linux file systems                         #######
######                          Script created by (Srijan Kishore)                              #######
######                                                                                          #######
######                                                                                          #######
#######################################################################################################                                                                                       
#######################################################################################################
#######################################################################################################

# User Check

if [ "$USER" = 'root' ]
    then
        gdialog --title "User Check" --msgbox "User is root, you can execute the script successfully." 200 150        
        echo "User is root, you can execute the script successfully"
    else
        gdialog --title "User Check" --msgbox "User is not Root. Please run the script as root user." 200 150
        echo "User is not Root. Please run the script as root user."
        exit 1
fi

# Check your operating system

cat /etc/debian_version >> /dev/null 
if [ "$?" = 0 ]
    then
        echo "You are using ubuntu/debian"
        gdialog --title "Your Operating System" --msgbox "You are using ubuntu/debian"
    else
        gdialog --title "Your Operating System" --msgbox "You are not using debian/ubuntu.You can download the TestDisk from this link http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download"

    echo "You are not using debian/ubuntu. You can download the TestDisk from this link http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download"
        
fi



# Installing Testdisk
testdisk /version >> /dev/null
if [ "$?" = 0 ]
then
    echo "Testdisk already installed"
else
    echo "Installing Testdisk"
    apt-get update 
    apt-get upgrade    
        apt-get --force-yes -y install testdisk   
                
                    gdialog --title "Success" --msgbox "Testdisk installed successfully" 100 50
                  
 fi
    
# Set backup directory
mkdir -p /root/result/lostfiles





#Run the recovery program



photorec /d /root/result/lostfiles

# Filters files
 
user=`ps aux | grep gnome-session | grep -v grep | head -1 | cut -d " " -f1`
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output"

mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Debians"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/rpms"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/conf_files"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/exe"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/binaries"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Docs"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Pdfs"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Mbox"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Images"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Sound"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/ISO"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Excel"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Presentation"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives"
mkdir "/home/$user/recovered_output/Others"

#Sorting the Recovered data


find /root/result/ -name "*.doc"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Docs/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.docx"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Docs/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.odt"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Docs/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.pdf"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Pdfs/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.mbox"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Mbox/"  \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.png"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Images/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.jpg"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Images/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.jpeg"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Images/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.gif"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Images/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.avi"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.mpeg"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.mp4"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.mkv"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.webm"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.wmv"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.flv"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Videos/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.mp3"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Sound/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.wav"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Sound/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.deb"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Debians/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.bin"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/binaries/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.exe"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/exe/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.rpm"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/rpms/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.conf"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/conf_files" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.iso"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/ISO/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.xls"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Excel/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.xlsx"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Excel/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.csv"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Excel/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.ods"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Excel/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.ppt"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Presentation/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.pptx"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Presentation/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.odp"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Presentation/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.html"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.htm"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.jsp"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.xml"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.css"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.js"     -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Web_Files/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.zip"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.tar"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.rar"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.gzip"   -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.tar.gz" -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.7z"     -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.bz"     -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives/" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.bz2"    -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Archives" \;
find /root/result/ -name "*.*"      -type f  -exec mv {} "/home/$user/recovered_output/Others/" \;
chown -R $user "/home/$user/recovered_output"
zenity --display :0 --info --width=350 --height=100 --title "Recovery Successful" --text " Data has been recovered successfully in recovered_output folder in your home directory."
nautilus /home/$user/recovered_output &
exit 0
      

4. Script Execution

Simply copy the above script & paste in file viz. script.sh & give the execute  permissions to the script.

chmod +x script.sh

Note: Please run the script with root by using the command

sudo -i                                        #### Put your system login password##########

Run the script & it will guide you further.

sh script.sh

5. Finalization

Firstly script will confirm that whether the user running the script is root, then it will check for the TestDisk tool installation. It will redirect you to the drive selection page for the data recovery.




Select the drive which you want to recover.




Select its filesystem.




Press enter to continue.




After Completion of recovery it will show the number of files recovered.



Exit the TestDisk tool as follows.






The script will popup for the success message.



Press OK & the data is recovered in the recovered_output folder of your home directory.


Cheers you have recovered your data.
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14 Comment(s)

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Comments

By: Daniel Eaton

I use Ubuntu10.04 LTS, when read the post, it seems most valuable to me. You explain here about Ubuntu12.04 LTS, I ask a question to you is same procedure can use in my Ubuntu version?

By:

Yes it will be compatible with the all Ubuntu versions

Br//

Srijan

 

By:

I would give this guide which explains more methods to recover deleted files cursohacker.es/recuperar-archivos-borrados-programas

By: Allysson

Hi, i am using Linux Mint 16 and a tested this script to recover data from a external hd, and will running normal... I hope that works! thanks for help.

By: hosam

i am new in ubuntu. i cant run your script. i accidentally formatted my harddisk and become one partition instead of two.please help

thank you

By: Anonymous

Where is the viz .script.sh file that you mention? I have searched for it throughout the computer files.

By: satswami

Hi, Thanks for the detailed documentation and the script. I was able to recover a list of lost.files.xx using this method. But, I accidentally deleted a folder and not sure of the file names; but wanted to recover the same folder using the same method. After recovery, I see a entire set of folders with names lost.files.xx and a bunch of files on each directory. Suppose, if my directory name was "directory" and wanted to recover with the same folder structure as it was before, is it possible using this method and if yes, please suggest a way to get it? I also searched the entire recovered directory, in my case /root/result/lost.files.xx/, and couldnt find that I wanted. Your suggestions please?

By: Abraar Arique

Hi Srijan,

Thanks a lot for this article. I used your method to recover some deleted MP4 videos which I really needed. Your method works great!

This article helped me a lot.

By: ML

If you're searching for lost files with this script on the same partition as your OS is then you might actually overwrite what you're trying to save with the scripts output...

Protect your lost data by unmounting and (if needed) remount as read only as soon as you realise that the unthinkable has happened.

By: king

Hi 

 

My hard disk crashed and i have made it external drive.

I have tried mounting it on Linux and doing testdisk, but its taking forever. Can u suggest will this work for my hard disk. AS I can see unpartitioned space in my hard disk. And I really need to recover data.

By: manasa

hi iam trying to backup one video which is stored in webcam folder ,Iam able to get the webcam folder but iam not able to get the contents that are their in folder .so can any body help me.

 

By: nick

Hi,

Could you tell me what were  file viz. script.sh is?

I would have expected to run this in the terminal - but I am not familiar with Ubuntu, so I just want to be sure.

Thanks

By: manpreet

its showing error in your script 

/opt/script.sh: 148: /opt/script.sh: Syntax error: end of file unexpected (expecting "then")

 

By: Sharp TV Repair Dubai

I am new to ubuntu and I accidentally deleted some documents. your data recovery helps a lot and get my data back,  Thanks