Score:-1

Ubuntu

How to fix when files keep disappearing without reason

God of Money

3/27/24, 12:20 PM

How to fix when files keep disappearing without reason? Or maybe because I accessed it? I'm on Ubuntu 22.04

money@money:~$ ls move*
move2.sh  movenew.sh  movestart3.sh
money@money:~$ cat move2.sh
cat: move2.sh: No such file or directory
money@money:~$ ls move*
movenew.sh  movestart3.sh
money@money:~$

Is there a log of systematically deleted file or something? My .bash_history also gone sometimes but got it back after a restart. Any clue?

1 + 7

delete

files

log

user535733

3/27/24, 12:29 PM

Do you have some special or unusual install of Ubuntu or old hardware? How is your system different in any way from a stock install on an ext4-formatted, reasonably new hard drive or SSD?

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 12:30 PM

No clue. This is worrying - my files don't randomly disappear. The two most obvious reasons I can think of is hardware failure or malware..

God of Money

3/27/24, 12:40 PM

malware on linux?

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 1:00 PM

Yes? As you noted, I didn't try to answer your question directly. I stated that the most obvious reasons I could think of for mysteriously disappearing files were those two. But your question lacks considerable detail for anyone to act on. If you can rule out malware, I would guess your harddrive is dying. Or maybe someone can provide another reason I'm not aware of..

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 1:04 PM

6 year old article for reference: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/killdisk-ransomware-now-targets-linux-prevents-boot-up-has-faulty-encryption/ Malware can also be some "friend" who put a script on your PC that randomly deletes files. How are we to know what has happened on your computer?

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 1:22 PM

Please list output of `type cat` in your question. Thanks.

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 2:36 PM

Please add a detailed view of your filesystem. Add output of either `tree` or `ls -la` to your question. Thanks.

Score:0

Ubuntu

chili555

3/27/24, 1:12 PM

Your files haven't disappeared and I doubt that you have a virus.

The command ls lists the contents of a directory. In order to access the files listed, you must change directories, cd, to the directory. Please try:

cd move*
cat move2.sh

+ 3

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 1:16 PM

I don't think the OP has malware either - but I still don't understand this answer. How do you explain that the same command (`ls move*`), run from the same directory, produces 2 different results (`move2.sh` is absent from the latter)? Also, should there be a directory named `move*`?

chili555

3/27/24, 1:24 PM

There probably should not be a directory with an asterisk, commonly used as a wildcard. However, if there were two or more directories named , for example, move, move1 and move2, the result of `ls` would have shown it. I have no explanation for the different result of `ls`.

Artur Meinild

3/27/24, 1:30 PM

I just got the crazy idea that the OP's `cat` command has an alias that deletes the file.- asked for clarification..

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to fix when files keep disappearing without reason

Post an answer

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