[ale] recovering an ext3 drive

[James P. Kinney III]

This is one of my FAVORITE topics (having deleted stuff by accident
once)

On Sun, 2003-01-19 at 22:05, Geoffrey wrote:

> > 
> > I believe the day will come where undeleting data on Linux partitions will be 
> > as easy as it is in FAT32/FAT16 Windows. The position of "let the user suffer 
> > for their mistake of having to use the software" will (and should be) 
> > eliminated.

I disagree. If a person is given an axe, is shown that an axe can cut
all sorts of stuff, told to not hit their foot with the axe, then they
hit their foot with the axe anyway, accident or deliberate, they have
learned a valuable, albeit harsh, lesson. Darwin's rules should be given
a bigger priority than they currently do. We don't need to be protected
from ourselves. We sure don't need to be protected from our own
stupidity.

If Fred the IQ challenged office schlep deletes the companies Quickbooks
files, he should probably not be accessing them anyway. The admin at the
office should have a backup copy from the day before. The rules still
apply here. The more important the information, the better the
protection on it. It is possible to make filesystems in Linux appendable
only. Eats up hard drives, but at $200 for 200 GB, who cares?!

> > 
> > Desktop computers should be user friendly and somewhat forgiving.
> > The trend is that Linux, got a GUI and is becoming more user friendly.
> 
Not too long ago, you had to have a PhD to touch a computer. Now any
bozo can buy one from WalMart. Most people are simply not knowledgeable
enough to avoid deleting files they need. Those people should never have
root or administrative access. After they delete their homework or
checkbook a few times they will either learn to THINK BEFORE THEY PUSH
THE BUTTON, or they will decide that computers are not for them. Either
way, it will be a learning event for them. Which is what they need.

I'm not directing any of this tirade at anyone on this list or off. I
just a bit chaffed at the need for tools to undo something that is very
clear and easy to understand. If you tell the box to delete, throw away,
discard, get rid of, shred, or incinerate a file, it should do just
that. That file should be GONE! No chance ever of recovering it.  I
think the M$ way of store it in the trash can even though I select
delete is bad psychology. It should say "to trash can" or "dump later".

Apple got it completely wrong with the "drag the floppy to the trash can
to EJECT!?" mess. But what else could they do? They only have one mouse
button! Bwahaha!

RedHat 8 and Gnome got it right. I can select "move to trash" or I can
get rid of the file completely with "delete". 

Maybe there should be a "dumpster-diving" command that "rescues
treasures" from the trash can on the desktop :) M$ could use one. I
think I'll patent it.
> 
> Now you and I need to hook up so I can buy you a beer....

Mmmmm. Beer! But you only referred to beer in the singular?

-- 
James P. Kinney III   \Changing the mobile computing world/
President and CEO      \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244             \.___________________________./

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics) <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7 



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