how could this happen? accidental mass file deletion
Hi, I am with OS 15.2/KDE and a very strange thing happened to me: all files (not the sub-folders, but the files in them) of my desktop folder were deleted without that I know why... what I did (in case it gives a hint) : Started SimpleScreenRecorder to record the complete screen in an mp4 in the desktop folder (this file vanished also). I paused/continued the screen recorder several times. Started Win10 in Virtual-Box, did some photo editing, shut down Win10, and when I saw my desktop again there were no icons, only some folders. I got aware of heavy disk use and shut down the computer. After booting again I saw that all files (several hundreds) in this folder and its subfolders were gone, but not the folders themselves. It only affected the Desktop folder and its subfolders, no others as much as I can see. To do this deliberately I would have to enter an rm with options, but I didn't... I know that during this session my mouse began to be defective, a right click produced a double-click, but that shouldn't be able to produce such a command, isn't it? Is there a way I can find out what happened exactly? Search (for what?) in what log? It seems mysterious to me and disquiets me although since then everything seems to work normally. (Luckily I am a back-up-freak, so no damage, but still...) (the desktop folder isn't shared with windows, the shared folder is on another partition and wasn't affected) Any thoughts? Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Málaga https://www.patreon.com/danielbauer https://www.daniel-bauer.com
On 07/01/2022 10.27, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi,
I am with OS 15.2/KDE and a very strange thing happened to me: all files (not the sub-folders, but the files in them) of my desktop folder were deleted without that I know why...
what I did (in case it gives a hint) :
Started SimpleScreenRecorder to record the complete screen in an mp4 in the desktop folder (this file vanished also). I paused/continued the screen recorder several times.
Started Win10 in Virtual-Box, did some photo editing, shut down Win10, and when I saw my desktop again there were no icons, only some folders. I got aware of heavy disk use and shut down the computer. After booting again I saw that all files (several hundreds) in this folder and its subfolders were gone, but not the folders themselves.
It only affected the Desktop folder and its subfolders, no others as much as I can see.
To do this deliberately I would have to enter an rm with options, but I didn't...
I know how to do this with 'mc' (midnight commander), easily, but it is not a single keystroke nor something that can happen accidentally. No, no idea how to get this result. Clean up tools? Maybe KDE has some. Windows does, normally third party.
I know that during this session my mouse began to be defective, a right click produced a double-click, but that shouldn't be able to produce such a command, isn't it?
Is there a way I can find out what happened exactly? Search (for what?) in what log?
~/.bash_history if it was a terminal given command.
It seems mysterious to me and disquiets me although since then everything seems to work normally.
(Luckily I am a back-up-freak, so no damage, but still...) (the desktop folder isn't shared with windows, the shared folder is on another partition and wasn't affected)
Any thoughts?
Scary. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
On Friday 07 January 2022, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi,
I am with OS 15.2/KDE and a very strange thing happened to me: all files (not the sub-folders, but the files in them) of my desktop folder were deleted without that I know why... ... I know that during this session my mouse began to be defective, a right click produced a double-click, but that shouldn't be able to produce such a command, isn't it?
Is there anything in the trash? Was some kind of file browser like dolphin running? Could it be that some phantom mouse click(s) sent everything to the trash, and then the desktop just created some new/empty folders as it might do when used for the first time.
Am 07.01.22 um 20:36 schrieb Michael Hamilton:
On Friday 07 January 2022, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi,
I am with OS 15.2/KDE and a very strange thing happened to me: all files (not the sub-folders, but the files in them) of my desktop folder were deleted without that I know why... ... I know that during this session my mouse began to be defective, a right click produced a double-click, but that shouldn't be able to produce such a command, isn't it?
Is there anything in the trash? Was some kind of file browser like dolphin running? Could it be that some phantom mouse click(s) sent everything to the trash, and then the desktop just created some new/empty folders as it might do when used for the first time.
There is nothing in trash, nor in user nor root... There were 3 dolphin windows open and a bash console, but bash logs (user and root) don't show any command that could cause what happened :-( The sub- and sub-sub-folders that remained emptied of files are my own folders with very personal names, nothing that could have been created automatically... As much as I understand, a rm -r command would also have deleted the directories and not only the files within them, and to delete only the files I'd have to use a pipe with find or something like that - it would be quite complicated, I believe... I cannot explain to my self what happened here. It's very strange and kind of frightening... -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Málaga https://www.patreon.com/danielbauer https://www.daniel-bauer.com
On 08/01/2022 12.30, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Am 07.01.22 um 20:36 schrieb Michael Hamilton:
On Friday 07 January 2022, Daniel Bauer wrote:
Hi,
I am with OS 15.2/KDE and a very strange thing happened to me: all files (not the sub-folders, but the files in them) of my desktop folder were deleted without that I know why... ... I know that during this session my mouse began to be defective, a right click produced a double-click, but that shouldn't be able to produce such a command, isn't it?
Is there anything in the trash? Was some kind of file browser like dolphin running? Could it be that some phantom mouse click(s) sent everything to the trash, and then the desktop just created some new/empty folders as it might do when used for the first time.
There is nothing in trash, nor in user nor root...
There were 3 dolphin windows open and a bash console, but bash logs (user and root) don't show any command that could cause what happened :-(
The sub- and sub-sub-folders that remained emptied of files are my own folders with very personal names, nothing that could have been created automatically...
As much as I understand, a rm -r command would also have deleted the directories and not only the files within them, and to delete only the files I'd have to use a pipe with find or something like that - it would be quite complicated, I believe...
I cannot explain to my self what happened here. It's very strange and kind of frightening...
Yes, it is. mc: Change to desktop directory (or start with "mc Desktop") Search for all files (F9 / Command / Find file / --> use defaults, Panelize (Alt-L) or Alt-?, Enter, Alt-L Then mark all (press * on numeric keypad), delete (F8). Ie: mc Desktop Alt-?, Enter, Alt-L, *, F8 May be done with mouse, perhaps. Very chancy. I don't see any of that happening by accident. There are other GUI programs with some of the mc functionality, like Krusader. It does have search for files (ctrl-S). -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
Le 08/01/2022 à 12:30, Daniel Bauer a écrit :
I cannot explain to my self what happened here. It's very strange and kind of frightening...
I had a similar problem once, with unison. unison is aimed at mirroring disks through rsync. I tried to mirror a data disk to an other new usb one. fact was than this new one was defective. the file copied was accepted, but empty (zero byte), but with a more recent date than the original, so unison decided to copy back the zero size file to the original... That way, I got two folders with empty files :-( of course it's not exactly what happen to you, the files where not removed, but same kind of unexpectable thing jdd -- http://dodin.org http://valeriedodin.com
On 08/01/2022 13.32, jdd@dodin.org wrote:
Le 08/01/2022 à 12:30, Daniel Bauer a écrit :
I cannot explain to my self what happened here. It's very strange and kind of frightening...
I had a similar problem once, with unison.
unison is aimed at mirroring disks through rsync.
I tried to mirror a data disk to an other new usb one.
fact was than this new one was defective. the file copied was accepted, but empty (zero byte), but with a more recent date than the original, so unison decided to copy back the zero size file to the original...
That way, I got two folders with empty files :-(
of course it's not exactly what happen to you, the files where not removed, but same kind of unexpectable thing
rsync, when used with "--del" can delete the wrong files on the destination, if for example you give the wrong path for the source, because the source and destination contains a totally different set of files, thus deleting the backup. Happened to me once. But it also deletes the directories, not only files. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)
participants (5)
-
Carlos E. R. -
Daniel Bauer -
frans＠fransdb.nl -
jdd＠dodin.org -
Michael Hamilton