New undelete tool for ext3

[Theodore Tso]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 08:23:15PM +0100, Carlo Wood wrote:
> 
> I developed a tool to undelete files and directories.
> I did this after I accidently deleted 3 GB of my home
> directory.
> 
> I have been able to successfully recover all 50,000 files.
> 
> Note that this works WITHOUT prior installed patches or
> changes (like giis).
> 
> I have sent a mail to Juri Haberland, asking him to
> change the FAQ entry that claims that it is impossible
> to undelete files on ext3, but he has not replied to
> my mail at all. I still hope that the FAQ can be changed
> to point to the HOWTO that I have just written:
> 
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlo17/howto/undelete_ext3.html

That's a clever technique.  It only works so long as the journal
blocks haven't been reused, so you would need to use your tool very
*quickly* after the files had been deleted.  If the inode table block
hadn't been modified before the deletion, it might also not appear in
the journal, so it's also not guaranteed to work.  But certainly it's
a better shot than no chance at all.....

					- Ted