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This year, I finally made the switch to Ubuntu Linux. *

One of my elves (who knows a thing or two about computers) helped me migrate from my old Windows Me computer to a newer machine with Ubuntu installed.

I don't know anything about databases or spreadsheets or anything like that. I used to use Notepad to keep track of who's been naughty or nice. My elf friend recommended gedit as a replacement for Notepad (elves like Gnome for some reason...) and I was able to open and edit the files (naughty.txt and nice.txt) no problem.

As I was checking my email this morning, I encountered the following message:

Screenshot of email message

Naturally, I copied-and-pasted the command into a terminal and ran it. It asked for my password, which I carefully entered. After a few minutes, everything stopped working. My elf friend came over and muttered something I couldn't understand and quit his job on-the-spot.

So now Santa is stuck. Can you please help me recover the lists? Time is starting to run out since I need the files back by December 24.

Anything would be appreciated. In exchange for assistance, I am willing to accept removal requests for the naughty.txt list.

* If I'm going to represent charity to the world, I ought to reflect that in my choice of operating system, no?

Kaz Wolfe
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Santa Claus
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    lol. You seriously copy-pasted code from a random email? N1 mate =D – TellMeWhy Dec 18 '15 at 22:14
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    @DevRobot the guy goes around climbing down chimneys. Can we expect any better? The elf who gave him sudo privileges should be fired. – muru Dec 18 '15 at 22:17
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    @muru I already mentioned in the post that the elf quit. And what's "sudo" anyway? – Santa Claus Dec 18 '15 at 22:18
  • @SantaClaus Sorry, but: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/33989/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-quitting-before-getting-fired – muru Dec 18 '15 at 22:19
  • @SantaClaus: sudo allows you to run commands as superuser (the most powerful user on the computer with the most privileges and power). The superuser is literally allowed to do everything and anything, so don't execute dodgy looking code with it. –  Dec 18 '15 at 22:55
  • And the dd command is also known as Data Destroyer. You do not run dd unless you know exactly what you are doing. Your command loaded zeros to your entire hard drive and erased everything. And it is not recoverable as zeros were written. Your only recourse is to reinstall and restore your data from your last backup. – oldfred Dec 18 '15 at 22:57
  • @oldfred backup? Maybe I should talk to another elf... – Santa Claus Dec 18 '15 at 23:03
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    And what's "sudo" anyway? You have just earned a "Golden Quote" badge. – Alexander Shishenko Dec 18 '15 at 23:58

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