Ext2fs Undeletion of Directory Structures mini-HOWTO
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# 6. Locating deleted inodes

Get a list of all deleted inodes.

            # echo lsdel | debugfs /dev/hdy1 > lsdel.out

One problem here is that debugfs will not give the inode numbers to files that are zero in size (you probably have some in your /etc directory for instance). I will tell how to solve this problem in Section 9 and Section 11.

Load "lsdel.out" into a texteditor. The list of inodes should be sorted in time. Try to remember exactly what time you did that rm -rf. Probably it was the the last items you deleted and then they will be located at the bottom of the list, because it is sorted in time. Delete all lines that has nothing of interest. Save as "lsdel.out-selected".

Now we will cut away everything except the inodes.

            # cut -b 1-8 lsdel.out-selected | tr -d " " > inodes

To be sure, check that the deleted directories found above have their inodes in the list.

            # grep ^inode$ inodes

Where inode is the corresponding inode number.

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Analyse of directory dump |  | Activating inodes