Big Problem! Every thing has been deleted from home Folder

rucker222 · Post by **rucker222** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:37 pm

I decided to start again and delete all windows applications.

I followed the direction on the Wiki FAQ to type

rm -rf $HOME/ .wine

into the terminal and now everything is gone...

Just when was thinking how happy I am with the way my laptop was set up all my files pictures backgrounds etc are gone. All of my personalisation of Ubuntu went along with my files downloads... i take it there is no way to salvage any of this?

does anyone know why it happened?

Im using Ubuntu 10.10 and have the latest version of wine installed. [/code]

John Drescher · Post by **John Drescher** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:43 pm

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:37 PM, rucker222 <[email protected]> wrote:

I decided to start again and delete all windows applications.

I followed the direction on the Wiki FAQ to type
Code:
rm -rf $HOME/ .wine

into the terminal and now everything is gone...

Just when was thinking how happy I am with the way my laptop was set up all my files pictures backgrounds etc are gone. All of my personalisation of Ubuntu went along with my files downloads... i take it there is no way to salvage any of this?

does anyone know why it happened?

You put a space between / and .

John

rucker222 · Post by **rucker222** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:51 pm

John Drescher wrote:On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 8:37 PM, rucker222 <[email protected]> wrote:
I decided to start again and delete all windows applications.

I followed the direction on the Wiki FAQ to type
Code:
rm -rf $HOME/ .wine

into the terminal and now everything is gone...

Just when was thinking how happy I am with the way my laptop was set up all my files pictures backgrounds etc are gone. All of my personalisation of Ubuntu went along with my files downloads... i take it there is no way to salvage any of this?

does anyone know why it happened?

You put a space between / and .

John

I had a feeling that was what it would be.

I almost deleted the space before hitting return as well, i am so gutted!!!

I even had a quick look back at the FAQ too because i though it was strange to have a space there but sware it looks like there is one...

rucker222 · Post by **rucker222** » Tue May 31, 2011 8:57 pm

Okay, looks like I will have to do a total reinstall of the OS as I have somehow managed to screw things up for my admin user account with this also.

Things like the software centre don’t seem to be working in my admin account, returning all sorts of errors when I tried to run it from the terminal and I'm not nearly qualified to try and fix everything. I think it will be easier and quicker to just start again (really not looking forward to it though).

I can not believe I managed to screw things up this badly all because I added a space between / and .wine (what a tool!!)

Let this be a lesson to anyone out there as dumb as me, if your not sure check & double check!!! still cant believe it, I knew it didn’t seem correct but did it anyway...

John Drescher · Post by **John Drescher** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:05 pm

Let this be a lesson to anyone out there as dumb as me, if your not sure check & double check!!! still cant believe it, I knew it didn’t seem correct but did it anyway...

rm -rf is a very powerful and dangerous command. I usually am very
careful when I use that, since I have accidentally mistyped that
probably two or three times in the 21 years I have used *nix operating
systems.

John

rucker222 · Post by **rucker222** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:25 pm

John Drescher wrote:
Let this be a lesson to anyone out there as dumb as me, if your not sure check & double check!!! still cant believe it, I knew it didn’t seem correct but did it anyway...
rm -rf is a very powerful and dangerous command. I usually am very
careful when I use that, since I have accidentally mistyped that
probably two or three times in the 21 years I have used *nix operating
systems.

John

Yeah I guess a lot of people learn the hard way!
I would not be too bothered if it were not for the fact the girlfriend gets sick of me being to the computer enough as it is. She is going to love how long its going to take me to get things up and running again!

I wonder if maybe a comment should be added to the Wiki page so other people who may be as dumb as me know there is no space in that command and to be careful. If for no other reason than to save them from the hell I know the girlfriend is going to put me through over this.

Good thing she does not visit this forum

jjmckenzie · Post by **jjmckenzie** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:01 pm

On 5/31/11 7:25 PM, rucker222 wrote:

John Drescher wrote:
Let this be a lesson to anyone out there as dumb as me, if your not sure check& double check!!! still cant believe it, I knew it didn’t seem correct but did it anyway...

rm -rf is a very powerful and dangerous command. I usually am very
careful when I use that, since I have accidentally mistyped that
probably two or three times in the 21 years I have used *nix operating
systems.

John
Yeah I guess a lot of people learn the hard way!
I would not be too bothered if it were not for the fact the girlfriend gets sick of me being to the computer enough as it is. She is going to love how long its going to take me to get things up and running again!

Maybe this is a clue to spend more time with her and less with the
computer. Besides, most Linux installers can do what you need to do,
without a lot of handholding.

I wonder if maybe a comment should be added to the Wiki page so other people who may be as dumb as me know there is no space in that command and to be careful. If for no other reason than to save them from the hell I know the girlfriend is going to put me through over this.

You can always add this yourself. After all, it is a Wiki. Your change
may require moderation to get in, but being a new person, your viewpoint
is always desired.

Good thing she does not visit this forum

You never know, she might. Never assume anything.

rucker222 · Post by **rucker222** » Tue May 31, 2011 11:41 pm

jjmckenzie wrote:On 5/31/11 7:25 PM, rucker222 wrote:
rucker222 wrote:
Yeah I guess a lot of people learn the hard way!
I would not be too bothered if it were not for the fact the girlfriend gets sick of me being to the computer enough as it is. She is going to love how long its going to take me to get things up and running again!
Maybe this is a clue to spend more time with her and less with the
computer. Besides, most Linux installers can do what you need to do,
without a lot of handholding.

You are a very wise man jjmckenzie!!

rucker222 wrote:
Good thing she does not visit this forum
You never know, she might. Never assume anything.

Oh so true! Making assumptions is what got me in to this mess in the first place.

And I don’t know if its just me but I think women seem to know I’m in trouble for doing something wrong before I've even done it, so chances are she will find this thread knowing my luck.

Well thanks again to everyone who have helped me up to now, I guess I will be back once I have a Linux operating system thats working for me to reinstall Wine onto.

FrÃ©dÃ©ric Delanoy · Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:15 am

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 04:25, rucker222 <[email protected]> wrote:

Yeah I guess a lot of people learn the hard way!
I would not be too bothered if it were not for the fact the girlfriend gets sick of me being to the computer enough as it is. She is going to love how long its going to take me to get things up and running again! Â :?

If your /home was on a separate partition, you could try a live CD and
a file recovery program. You did backups, right, like we all do (hum)?

I wonder if maybe a comment should be added to the Wiki page so other people who may be as dumb as me know there is no space in that command and to be careful. Â If for no other reason than to save them from the hell I know the girlfriend is going to put me through over this.

That's why I only use Tab to autocomplete and never Space when I use
"rm -rf" (been there, done that)

BTW, using ~ instead of $HOME lets you autocomplete (at least in
bash). So rm -rf ~/.w<Tab> lists you your wineprefixes (if you put
them in a usual place).
Alternatively, if you do this regularly, put it in a simple shell script, e.g.

deleteWineInstallation.sh
----------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
rm -rf /home/myusername/.wine

and run it with ". deleteWineInstallation.sh" (or chmod it to run it directly)

Martin Gregorie · Post by **Martin Gregorie** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:00 am

On Tue, 2011-05-31 at 23:41 -0500, rucker222 wrote:

Well thanks again to everyone who have helped me up to now, I guess I
will be back once I have a Linux operating system thats working for me
to reinstall Wine onto.

Before you do a straight install, read this:

http://www.libelle-systems.com/free/lin ... rades.html

This tells you how to set up the /home directory structure as a separate
partition and why you should do so.

This is my description of how and why I always set my Linux systems up
this way. There's more detail than you need right now, but skimming
through it will show you how to make subsequent Linux installs and
upgrades very much easier.

And, if you haven't done so before, get in the habit of making backups.
Portable USB disks are cheap for the peace of mind they provide, so get
one and use it to make regular offline backups at least weekly. If you
use rsync, a backup can be made in as little as 15 minutes. I'm thinking
I should review and publish the scripts I use for backups, so watch the
http://www.libelle-systems.com/free/ space.

Martin

Bob Wya · Post by **Bob Wya** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:53 pm

Martin Gregorie wrote: ...
This tells you how to set up the /home directory structure as a separate
partition and why you should do so.
...
Martin

+1 for this

On my Desktop I've got my /home partition on a separate/second harddisk from root partition. Should boost performance as well as ease upgrades, etc.

Bob