Disaster Strikes: What to Do When You Accidentally Delete Files or Format Disks in the Cloud

Recovering lost files or formatted disks in a cloud server can be a daunting task, especially if you're not familiar with the recovery process. Unlike physical computers, where you can simply remove the disk and attempt to recover the data, cloud servers require a more complicated approach.

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Steps to recover your lost data:

1. Gracefully shut down the system. This will prevent any further damage to the disk and improve the chances of recovering lost data.

2. Mount the formatted disk as read-only. It is essential to mount the formatted disk as read-only or avoid any read operations to the disk if possible.

3. Recover the partition table of a formatted disk.

   Use TestDisk, a powerful tool that can analyze and recover lost partition tables.

   Follow the Steps:

• Install TestDisk on your cloud server.

• Launch TestDisk and select the formatted disk.

• Select "Analyse" and wait for the tool to scan the disk.

• Select "Quick Search" to search for lost partitions.

• If Quick Search doesn't find the lost partition, select "Deeper Search" to search for more partitions.

• Select the lost partition and choose "Write" to save the partition table.

PhotoRec: Media file recovery tool

• Use PhotoRec, which can recover files (especially media files) from a formatted disk or a deleted partition.

  Follow the steps:

• Install PhotoRec on your cloud server.

• Launch PhotoRec and select the disk where the deleted files were located.

• Select the file system type of the disk.

• Choose the partition where the deleted files were located.

• Select "Search" and wait for the tool to scan the disk.

• Select the files you want to recover and choose "Copy" to save them to a safe location.

R-Studio disk recovery: powerful GUI recovery tool

If you prefer GUI Tool then use, R-Studio disk recovery is an excellent tool that does a great job of recovering lost files or formatted disks.

• Follow the steps:

• Install R-Studio on your cloud server.

• Launch R-Studio and select the formatted or deleted disk.

• Select "Scan" and wait for the tool to scan the disk.

• Select the files you want to recover and choose "Recover" to save them to a safe location.

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Recovering lost files from boot partitions from the cloud server

1. Create a new instance to store boot partition data in a separate disk.

2. Prepare another disk to mount with sufficient disk space to store the dump of the deleted partition.

3. Use the dd command to transfer the data from a deleted instance to a newly created disk in a new server, you can use the dd command.

• Use the following command to copy the data from the deleted disk block to a new disk for storing the block:

# Cloning boot disk remotely
# run this command from server where file was deleted

sudo dd if=/dev/sdX | ssh username@server sudo dd of=/dev/sdY

• Replace "sdX" with the deleted disk block and "sdY" with a new disk for storing the block.

• Use any tools mentioned above to start recovery.

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Conclusion

Follow the Instructions Carefully While the recovery process begins, it can be time-consuming, so be patient.

Links:

1. R-studio https://www.r-studio.com/

2. Test-disk https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

3. Photo-rec https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions and leave me a comment if you have any problems or questions.

Till then, Keep on Hacking, Cheers