Emergency File Recovery

Recovering original copies of files stored on emcee (the file server) that have been deleted, overwritten, or lost can be a simple process.

Snapshots

Snapshots are read-only copies of emcee's's entire filesystem. They are created (roughly) every six hours.

Snapshots don't last forever, however, and there are only a finite number of them kept online (since they take space away from the active filesystem). Under the current schedule, we have approximately three weeks' worth of online snaps.

The long and the short of it is that snapshots will probably help you recover a clean copy of your file if

• it has existed long enough to be included in the last snapshot (which could be anywhere from 1 min to 4 hours)

• it was damaged or deleted within the last three weeks

The Recovery Process

1. Use a Windows machine.

   Navigate to the share drive of interest on emcee (e.g. H: for home directories).

   Right click on the directory that contained the file of interest.

   Pull down to "Properties".

   Click the "Previous Versions" tab.

   Double-click the directory from a date or time that will contain the file to be recovered.

   Copy and paste it where you'd like it to be.

   Done!

When All Else Fails

If you cannot find the file you want in the shapshot directory, we may have it on backup tapes. In that case, you'll want to send a message to manager. In the message, be sure to include

• the machine on which the file was stored (if you know it)
• the full path and name to the file
• a guess as to the date or dates on which a good copy of the file might be found (e.g., you're pretty sure the file was in good shape a month ago).

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This page was most recently revised on November 17, 2008.
Please address questions or comments to the webmaster.