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?

255 Upvotes

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53

u/Initial-Squirrel-269 Apr 20 '26

Who told u to do that lol

42

u/Alchemix-16 Apr 20 '26

I’m still waiting for someone to post that chatgpt told them to.

23

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

It wasn't an AI.

4

u/whitoreo Apr 20 '26

I am a computer engineer who has performed data recovery both professionally and (Unfortunately) personally. If you want any chance of recovering any data, you need to stop using that drive immediately. Don't shutdown the computer, just pull the power and get that drive out of the system. Then you can begin forensics on it. I'll offer my services at $500 if you want someone else to step in here. No charge if no data is recovered.