Lost files in cut/paste (Noob101)

[ch4llenger]

Hello there,

I really need your help! I am new to Linux Mint and so far I am loving this system! But now I am in a world of trouble!
I wanted to cut/paste all my documents and pictures (worth over 20GB) from my Linux Mint laptop to my flash drive, and
when it finished, I rushed to pull it out without safely unmounting it (really stupid of me ). Right after that I mounted
it on my Windows 7 PC and found nothing on it. It's a 32GB flash drive and it indicated as empty. So I rushed back to my
laptop (with Linux Mint) and couldn't find my files on it either. I have Mint 14 Nadia, lost all my files (all my documents
and photographs with sentimental value) through cut/paste and I am desperate for any of yours help! I used this method,
because I percepted it as faster then copy/paste.

Please help me to recover my files!

Ch4llenger

[passerby]

Same speed as copy and paste if you're copying/moving between two different devices/partitions, AFAIK.
Anyway, enable hidden folders and take a look on your flash drive. You may have a trash or lost & found folder present.
Not sure what the norm is in this situation, but I've found files I thought were gone for good by doing so.

[xenopeek]

Yes, you shouldn't rip out a USB stick Unmount it from the context menu of its icon on your desktop, or on Cinnamon from the removable devices applet in the panel. Then wait for the light on your USB stick to stop flashing, as it finishes writing data to storage from cache.

Recovery is perhaps possible with extundelete. I have no experience with that, but see example of use here: http://everydaylht.com/howtos/system-ad ... le-system/. I'd recommend you boot from the Linux Mint installation DVD / USB stick, so as to minimize new writes to your hard disk. You can install extundelete from there if you have a working Internet connection, and it will install in RAM and not on your hard disk.

Ubuntu wiki has a topic about data recovery also: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery. Doesn't seem to helpful though, except for the obvious remark about making backups

[ch4llenger]

Same speed as copy and paste if you're copying/moving between two different devices/partitions, AFAIK.
Anyway, enable hidden folders and take a look on your flash drive. You may have a trash or lost & found folder present.
Not sure what the norm is in this situation, but I've found files I thought were gone for good by doing so.

I have tried that, my friend. Lost&Found was empty, no hidden folders or files, and the trash bin is empty (while mounted with the flash drive).