0

I am using Manjaro linux with a Samsung SSD 840 Pro.

Ive noticed my Documents folder is suddenly empty.

After rebooting, most of the text files I had saved are no longer there.

The problem is some of these contain passwords such as my BTC wallet, which I only created a few weeks back and do not have a backup, $15,000 is in the wallet.

I definitely would not have deleted these files.

Are they lost forever and why has this happened?

Improve this question
8
  • I'm sorry, but we cannot help with the information you have provided. As I am sure you can imagine, files randomly disappearing isn't a normal "feature". So either there is something fundamentally wrong with your disk (but we can't check it) or you did something you don't remember (this is very easy if you use graphical file managers, perhaps you dragged the files somewhere?). Unless you can find some more information, and I don't even know what to ask for from your description, I am afraid we really cannot help.
    – terdon ♦
    Commented Jul 8 at 18:02
  • I sure hope your public and or private keys to your crypto wallet aren't compromised. From another computer I would login to your wallet provider and verify the wallet status.
    – eyoung100
    Commented Jul 8 at 19:35
  • Please provide the (precise) name of a file that's gone missing. Any file will do, but the name must be exactly correct
    – Chris Davies
    Commented Jul 8 at 19:45
  • "most of the text files I had saved are no longer there" ... surely you mean ALL of the files are no longer there if the folder is, as you say, "suddenly empty"
    – Jaromanda X
    Commented Jul 9 at 0:26
  • @ChrisDavies Apologies for the absence, I had to go and buy a HD to create a mirror, Right now I am using the mirror. A name of a file that gone missing is peter.txt
    – Rachel1983
    Commented Jul 9 at 22:04

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

If someone knew about these files, that could have been a bad actor as well.

The first thing to do when you've noticed that your files have disappeared is to shutdown your system immediately, if it's a PC, simply plugging it off is the best. Why? Anything you do on your system now (even browsing the web), may overwrite the deleted files. Once your system is powered off, you plug your storage into a different computer, image it and start using any file recovery application using the image file (to avoid any possibility of again rewriting files).

Improve this answer
1
  • Its unlikely to be a bad actor, I live alone, No immediate neighbors either. Ive cloned the original harddrive, Right now I am using a copy to try to see what could have went wrong. Do you have any other suggestions
    – Rachel1983
    Commented Jul 9 at 22:08
1

I managed to find my files, they were moved into a unexpected location - I still do not know how.

The command used was

sudo su 
find / -type f -name "peter.txt"
Improve this answer
2
  • Glad you've found them
    – Chris Davies
    Commented Jul 9 at 22:27
  • That's good that they were moved instead of deleted, you could still be able to recover them but that might be a tedious and tiring process to do it. Now I think you know the importance of having a backup for important files, you can't just have one point of failure.
    – VaTo
    Commented Jul 9 at 23:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .