My constant comment's FUCK THIS!!

[areyououtthere]

The first chapter of my thesis is gone. Saved wrong somehow. I think I know roughly when it happened, but that doesn't change the fact that it's thirteen pages gone poof into the ether

Comments

[fiddledragon]

Call the help desk and find out if they have someone who knows what to do with Ubuntu -- there are geeks there; probably at least one of them knows Linux.

[crystalpyramid]

This is your own computer? Did you install it yourself? Do you know what the filesystem is?

It's probably ext3, which is great for never needing to be defragmented, but sucks for trying to retrieve deleted data from, because it overwrites deleted data ASAP. Which means that one of the most important things to do if you're using ext3 and want to retrieve a lost file is to not save anything else, move anything else, or otherwise change the state of your hard drive.

Here's what I did when I deleted about 10 GB of data. It's kind of a pain, though, and might not work anyway - I still never managed to retrieve a bunch of music files, and some stuff was corrupted and broken up oddly, but I did manage to retrieve several GB of stuff. If you take a look at it and it looks potentially useful, and you'd like me to talk you through it in more detail, I can do that. Although it's worth noting that I don't have access to a box running Ubuntu right now, so I can't give detailed directions about menus and stuff. (In Vegas on Noda's Macbook.)

[irilyth]

What format is the file in? Is it an application that saves backup files or anything clever like that?

[annawheatlie]

I second the suggestion to take it to the help desk. The worst thing that can happen is that they won't be able to help, and they might be able to help.

Also, beg for amnesty anyway. Grovel. Tell them you're really embarrassed and you've definitely learned your lesson, but they don't want you hanging around for another year just because of a computer snafu, do they?

Also, do you take any written notes/have any old drafts printed out? Even if you don't, sometimes recreating things you've just done is WAY easier than writing them the first time round. Don't despair. As my wonderful roommate says, "everything will be fine in the end. If it's not fine, it's not the end."

*HUGS* good luck!

[ethereal_winged]

What do you mean by "saved wrong"? I know that one of my coworkers at the desk is familiar with Linux, if you give me some more info I can talk to her about it and see if you two could set up an appointment.