Dumbest Thing you have done distro-hopping?

I just discovered something I did so idiotic I need a stronger adjective that what is in my name.

For one of my installs, I accidentally overwrote my 1TB HDD. A few minutes ago I wanted to put back some files… and all I saw was a distro.

It confused me because I was not sure if I was on my solid state drive or the HDD.

So, those files are gone. A lot is gone. Nothing too precious, I think… It might be a tremendous fuck up.

See kids, this is why you back up. Off the computer. Oh well.

EDIT: Recovering files using Photorec. Everyone who recommended this to me is a hero. Also a hero is the person who recommended FTK, but I was too eager to use something now than to sign up to download. I still should though…

RiderExMachina, (edited )

Before you perform another task on that hard drive, try photorec. You might be able to get a majority of your files back if they’re important

DidacticDumbass,

I guess I can try it, since I did not like, wipe everything.

Starbuck,

It sounds like you need to learn about disk forensics before you go any further. Check out FTK

DidacticDumbass,

Hah, I don’t think I illustrated how dumb I am. I deleted the partitions already.

snowe,
@snowe@programming.dev avatar

You can still recover.

DidacticDumbass,

I shall try!!

static_dragon,

Oh, I’ve nuked partitions in the past before, and was able to recover using photorec, when doing it, just make sure you don’t save the files to the drive you’re running recovery on

DidacticDumbass,

Good tip! I… would maybe have realized that would worsen the situation.

Starbuck,

Also, all of us have done things because we didn’t know better. The only dumb thing to do here is to not learn how to fix this. Try and fail, so next time you know how it works and can do better.

DidacticDumbass,

Thank you! This is just my way of laughing at the situation. I am definitely learning some new skills like data recovery and critical thinking.

Starbuck,

Unless it was encrypted, it prob doesn’t matter. The partition table is just the road map that points to the houses (files). A tool like FTK or PhotoRec goes byte by byte to find the files and figure out what they are. You won’t have file names, but the data might still be there.

DidacticDumbass,

I got it running now! I did not have that much to recovery, so everything will fit in home. Mostly word files, PDFs, and pictures. Few movies and music.

backhdlp,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I wiped my drive with a lot of non-backed-up data on it intentionally because the Fedora installer was too confusing. Lost among other things my Celeste and Minecraft saves, a lot of images, and other stuff with sentimental value.

xkforce,

Unless you meant to destroy all of that data, that was unintentional not intentional.

backhdlp, (edited )
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It was intentional, it was just also dumb and a bad decision

xkforce,

You meant to destroy your data?

backhdlp,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Yes, I didn’t think about it a lot before doing it, that’s why it was dumb

DidacticDumbass,

Damn. I am sorry for that loss. I agree, I am always boggled every time I use the Fedora installer. I don’t know how I clicked the wrong disk. I didn’t read close enough, or I don’t know.

I hope the new things you make are better than what was wiped.

backhdlp,
@backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Tbh I don’t even remember much of the stuff that I lost anymore. I had a lot of images, a legally downloaded series, a good amount of legally downloaded music that I keep forgetting I don’t have on my phone, the aforementioned game saves, and I don’t remember more rn. I was luckily more creative during school so the more important stuff (Siberian sniper crocodile) was on another device.

DidacticDumbass,

Lucky me most of the important stuff are things I have on another computer, or can redownload from email or whatever service that needed it.

But my new passwords… oh well. Recovery is typically easy.

What sucks is losing things you did not know you would need or miss until much later.

DidacticDumbass,

THANK YOU EVERYONE who recommended PHOTOREC! This community is fantastic.

Synthead, (edited )

You might be able to rebuild your partitions with testdisk, too. Work from a backup.

DidacticDumbass,

Neat. I will try that once photorec finishes its search in like a month from now.

BolexForSoup,
@BolexForSoup@kbin.social avatar

I’m concerned at the number of people who boot new OS’s without backing up their computer.

DidacticDumbass,

Thank you for your concern, hah!

Yeah, I admit the mistake happened long before last night.

BolexForSoup,
@BolexForSoup@kbin.social avatar

Appreciate the good humor on your part! I’m just being a bit tongue in cheek but PSA: everyone should follow 3-2-1 backup protocol! You’ll never lose your data again!

3 backups
2 formats
1 off-site

So I recommend everyone get 2 decent HDD’s (2nd is clone of 1st) and 1TB of cloud storage. Most services are under $100/yr and let me tell you, you’ll want to spend 5x that to save half of what you lose without it. It’s easier and cheaper than ever to follow this system.

DidacticDumbass,

I may or may not have a OneDrive account that I was paying 2 bucks for but cancelled when it charged full price. I may actually have a lot of the important stuff on there!

Alas, none of the newer stuff like my upated password manager key and anything else after I ended my brief return to Windows.

Yeah, cloud storage is not the monster after all.

ininewcrow,
@ininewcrow@lemmy.ca avatar

I got started in Linux about 15 years ago. I’m not skilled nor a techie but knowledgeable enough to make things work. After running endless cracked windows machines I switched to Linux and started distro hopping. But I didn’t have enough money at the time to afford a lot of hard drive space.

I remember going from one distro to another while trying to transfer a couple of GBs worth of work on the same drive. Two GB of data was a big deal to me at the time. At one point late one night after about the tenth distro attempt, I wiped an entire drive worth of my unbacked up work. Worst moment of digital loss I ever had.

I’ve kept double triple and quadruple backups since then … and I still worry about losing data.

DidacticDumbass,

That is haunting.

I tend to be pretty cavalier with my data, because only recently have I started amassing anything of value (starting to be the adult I needed to be 10 years ago).

Yes… I have some storage shopping to do.

It was waaay past midnight when I made my mistake. I should have been sleeping at least 3 hours before.

popekingjoe,
@popekingjoe@lemmy.world avatar

I once nuked a 6TB drive full of Steam games. Started a full format of the drive. Didn’t realize until it was too late.

DidacticDumbass,

Wow. If I could teleport you some cake I would invite you to take it. That is a lot. I cannot imagine how long it took to redownload.

hottari,

I’ve done rm -rf / twice on Fedora installs.

DidacticDumbass,

I think I have done that a couple of times intentionally. Seems like one of those cognitive dangers that is harmful because you know it.

mesamunefire,

I accidentally formatted a drive with a Bitcoin wallet on it. Back a number of years ago. Fun times.

DidacticDumbass,

Oof. I mean… yes. Oof.

rez_doggie,

Those aren’t fuckups they are learning experiences. Now you know what that does in that situation.

DidacticDumbass,

Yes! I am becoming more careful. I am definitely getting deeper in my knowledge of programs and linux. The stuff to learn is immense. But, it makes my life so much better.

j4k3,
@j4k3@lemmy.world avatar

Wrecked my first Ubuntu install over the course of 2 years, wanted something new and tried Arch. The 4th time pacman wrecked my system I moved to Fedora at around F20 and have been happy ever since. I tried Gentoo in there somewhere, and managed to install it, but just the install burned me out. That was back when the Sakaki guide was one of the only ways to install on UEFI except with Fedora.

I would say my biggest mistake was not understanding the scope of Linux and that something like Arch and Gentoo are more for a CS grad student level of user.

I have a much better understanding of operating system design principals and architectures now, but I still prefer Fedora, really because the Anaconda system, Nvidia kernel driver build system, and UEFI shim are the best system for Linux I have encountered. The bootloader is one of the largest vulnerabilities in modern computers.

DidacticDumbass,

Something I am learning is that an install of a distro can last as long as you want it to.

Curiosity leads us to mistakes, but more often to things much cooler than what we knew before!

A computer is like a second home the more I think about it.

I am glad you learned a lot from those experiences!

Aatube,
@Aatube@kbin.social avatar

Nowadays, you have options like endeavorOS.

Chais, (edited )
@Chais@sh.itjust.works avatar

Accidentally flashed a live image (PCBSD, IIRC) onto my 1TB external HDD instead of the thumb drive. Lost years of collected music and movies that night. I learned two things:

  1. Don’t do this sort of thing in the middle of the night, when you’re tired and should be sleeping.
  2. dd is nicknamed ‘disk destroyer’ for good reason.
CaptDust,

😵‍💫 the 3am tinkering, it calls to me 😵‍💫

LostXOR,

Never dd at 3am, kids.

BlueEther,
@BlueEther@no.lastname.nz avatar

Not done it at 3am but have dd’d to the wrong disk late in the evening, possibly after a few vinos

flashgnash,

Fortunately my laptop only has nvmes built in, so 99% of the time all 3am me has to do is not type nvme and I’m good

DidacticDumbass,

Oh, am I talking to myself? Hah.

Yeah, I wish I had all the stuff I torrented in high school. Lost treasure.

cmnybo,

When using dd, check the command before pressing enter, then check it again for good measure.

MonkderZweite,

then replace dd with cat or cp.

onion,
  1. Disconnect all other drives
MonkderZweite, (edited )

… no use in dd to write an image to disk. Just use cat/cp/pv…

dd is a scalpell, not a shovel.

Useless use of dd

techwithjake, (edited )

Late to the party but this why I like Ventoy. It only looks for removable drives and then all you do is drag and drop your live images onto the removable drive. Pretty hard to mess anything up.

mateomaui,

Reading this thread makes me appreciate Macrium Reflect and my 64TB worth of redundant backup drives even more.

DidacticDumbass,

I might need to look into building a storage server of some kind. That is super cool.

mateomaui,

Personally, I keep the redundant backup as cold storage to minimize loss. Three 8TB content or archival drives that are always attached via USB but not powered until needed, plus another on NAS for streaming, and two more 8TB each for double backup that are only turned on when I want to do a sync. So the drives get minimal wear, and whenever a primary dies, the backups get promoted and a new one is bought to be third in line. I have lost too much data in the past. As well as I can manage, never ever again.

DidacticDumbass,

What is kind of funny is that my computer has the SSD for system and home, and I only ever used the storage to copy over files from my home. I also have a little 1TB SSD That I could have used as an offline backup… but didn’t do that. I had the tools, just never thought to do it. I will look into a NAS, that would be nifty. Can’t bork that with a new install.

mateomaui, (edited )

It only takes a few tragic events before “backup frequently, often and offline” really takes hold and doing preemptive backup becomes a neurosis. You have to experience a certain amount of fear, loss and regret to get there.

edit: the upside is I haven’t reinstalled a primary OS in years. Something is fucked? Restore that last image and keep rolling.

DidacticDumbass,

Yes. I think I am closer to data paranoia… I need a system.

That sounds nice. Not having a system that becomes terminally broken after a bad decision.

mateomaui,

I remember shortly after college I was living with a couple of people and one day we all heard “NOOOOOOOOOO!” and went running to see what tragedy happened. He had started formatting the one porn drive he had been collecting on over the last few years.

DidacticDumbass,

That is is a special kind grieving.

mateomaui,

I’ll never forget that scream, I thought a sound like that was reserved for when the cat ran behind the couch and stepped on the surge protector button, corrupting the hard drive as you were almost finished writing your graduate thesis, which wasn’t backed up yet.

DidacticDumbass,

Honestly a thesis is way higher stakes and value. Yeah, imagine thinking there was an emergency only to find out your roommate will need to spend the rest of the semester using their imagination.

mateomaui,

Yeah, we definitely had fun at his expense for a while after that.

DidacticDumbass,

I would be mortified. He seems shameless though, hah.

mateomaui,

He was in community theater. What shame?

DidacticDumbass,

Ah. I was in theater tech. No shame to find anywhere.

mex,

dd’ed an ISO onto the system drive instead of a USB stick. Luckily, the first partition was the Windows one, so not too important; and the rest I recovered from the GPT backup table.

DidacticDumbass,

Nice! I need to learn recovery methods. I am so used to scorch earthing an install when it goes wrong, which is not useful.

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