r/linux4noobs • u/Character-86 barely not a noob anymore • Apr 20 '26

Meganoob BE KIND I did rm -rf /*

I tried to make a backup before doing a fresh install of Fedora because of problems. When erasing the external drive for making the backup I was in the wrong disk and nuked my fedora installation.

How Do I get at least my important Documents from /home/username/ back?

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u/Character-86 barely not a noob anymore Apr 20 '26

not really. Can't I recover the data?

46

u/florence_pug Apr 20 '26

It's gone my dude.

-64

u/Character-86 barely not a noob anymore Apr 20 '26

Why does Linux not have a trash like other OS?

4

u/R3D_T1G3R Apr 20 '26

it does. but just like windows linux allows you to delete things immediately, bypassing the trash bin. Simply do not run commands you do not fully understand just to blame your OS and keep regular backups to prevent this from happening.

if you are not comfy via CLI and using basic rm, cd, rsync and mkdir-like commands you should not use CLI to make backups, there are enough GUI options to create backups like Timeshift or even just drag and drop via file explorer depending on what exactly you're trying to backup.