DVD update causes data loss

stan goedigi89__e at cox.net
Thu Dec 11 18:08:56 UTC 2008


王召峰 wrote:
> I happen to start my laptop with a DVD(containing Fedora 10 iso file) in 
> the CD-ROM,
> so it enters the installation or update environment, I didn't feel like 
> to reset, so I moved on,
> chose the update choice, hoping it will do nothing while going on, but 
> after update completed, the reset failed
> I started the machine, logined with old account 'houghes', but it said: 
> home/houghes  doesn't exist!
> so I lost all the data in my home directary!
> help!  this is really frustrating

You don't provide enough information to really tell, but it
sounds like you *installed* F10 instead of updating.  The
default during install is to overwrite existing partitions.
 If this is the case, your old OS is definitely gone.  Check
the home directory contents by doing ls -al /home  .
If there is nothing there, your data is probably gone.

But also check if there are any partitions outside your
current OS by running /sbin/blkid or df.  If there are,
perhaps one of them was ignored by the update and actually
contains your old home directory with all your data.  You
should be able to then mount that directory and copy the old
data to your new home directory.

Post back if you are still having problems.

An installation DVD is dangerous if you don't give it
respect.  To prevent this in future you should go into the
bios of your laptop as it is starting and change the boot
order so that HD is used before CD/DVD.  Then you have to
manually change it back before you can start an install DVD.





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