Is there a utility like Norton's PC DOS Unerase for the HP-UX HFS file system? I seem to remember a discussion/solution to this question, but I couldn't find the discussion/solution again. TIA
If I remember it correctly, you can try to use FSDB and try to find inodes for the lost files manually. I am not sure whether there are any automation tools
The referenece to fsdb that I'm aware of is from the man pages for the same. fsdb is the file system debugger. Its used to patch up a filesystem after a crash. The man page notes the following WARNING:
Only experienced users should use fsdb. The failure to fully understand the usage of fsdb and the file system's internal organization can lead to complete destruction of the file system and total loss of data.
There are some third-party products for different flavors, not sure if HP-UX is one of them. However, if you need to un-delete and do not have the utility loaded already, it is too late. The un-delete utility needs to be installed before
I was interested in an undelete to get back files that were deleted in between backups where the file would not have been backed up yet.
In my search from the hints here ( I dont want to touch the fsdb option) unrm works something like Norton's advanced recycle bin. Before files are deleted a copy is made in some safe area. Then every few days depending on the length of the backup cycle this copies are deleted. I've only found this routine available for Sun machines, but I suppose it might work on HP-UX.
If you want you can create your own "protected recyle bin". Consider:
Create an alias for the remove command and put it in your $HOME/.profile. Instead of actually removing the file, you would move the file to a directory that represents a "recyle bin" that you later empty.
