Mint 19.1 Tessa undelete

[Jfcp]

I am running Mint 19.1, "Tessa" (ASUS UX50v, Centrino proc, 4gB, RAM, 200gb hdd), in a dual boot machine with Vista, and need to do a complete reinstall as neither O.S. is really running right (obviously, I'll get rid if Vista all together, and use WIN7).

I put all the items I need to back up in a single file, and accidentally deleted it along with the junk I was getting rid of.

The Linux undelete info I can find online dates from several releases ago.

So what is the best way to undelete (wrong term for it, I know) a file in Mint 19.1?

I think I stand a good chance of getting the data back as it was only just now deleted, and it's only 700 - 800 MB.

[catweazel]

So what is the best way to undelete (wrong term for it, I know) a file in Mint 19.1?

If you have written anything to the disk since the deletion then it's likely all or somewhat lost already. You should run from a live media and install then run testdisk.

[gm10]

(obviously, I'll get rid if Vista all together, and use WIN7).

Considering Windows 7 reaches end-of-life in 3 months that's not all that obvious actually unless you are a fan of dead operating systems (as the Vista install may well indicate).

As to restoring your file, testdisk is good, but if it was just deleted and you know the file name and path then the easiest way will probably be with the extundelete package. Either way, as catweazel said, boot to a live USB, and in addition mount the partition only read-only.

[catweazel]

... if it was just deleted and you know the file name and path then the easiest way will probably be with the extundelete package.

Nice tip. Thanks.

[WharfRat]

Never had the occasion to use it, but ext4magic is another undelete utility for ext3/4 filesystems.

It might already be installed.

[Larry78723]

If it was just deleted, why not just check the Trash?

[Jfcp]

Thanks catweasel, gm10, Larry.

I agree win7 is ephemeral and outdated, but I only use it for a few of apps that won't talk to Mint. I'll go to my grave completely ignorant of MS 8 &10. It'll be a happy day when I'm done with MS for good.

Is there a shell that would enable me to run Win7 from a DVD disk on a Mint machine - like a reverse Wine I guess?

I'd bet MS frowns on that idea....so let's do it....

[gm10]

Is there a shell that would enable me to run Win7 from a DVD disk on a Mint machine - like a reverse Wine I guess?

I'm not sure what you mean with the reverse Wine part but you can run other operating systems in a virtual machine using, for example, VirtualBox.

[Larry78723]

Jfcp, If you'd tell us what those "few of apps that won't talk to Mint" are, we might be able to suggest linux replacements for them.