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I have deleted files from two disks using BlechBit 1.10 on Ubuntu 16.04. Is there a possibility to restore all files?

cat
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wojtekedi
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    "Please be mercy-full in your judgement" Then how will you learn? ;-) Do you have a backup? Since bleach-bit is -intended- to remove files so they can not be restored .... the answer is no :p – Rinzwind Jun 30 '16 at 10:04
  • I'm not sure what you're referring to by "deleted", since Bleachbit removes files that are part application caches and histories -- it doesn't remove your personal files. –  Jun 30 '16 at 18:08
  • Restore them from your backups. – Gwyn Evans Jun 30 '16 at 17:59

4 Answers4

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BleachBit is made to securely delete files by overwriting them several times (or similar methods).

Your data is gone. Make a backup next time.

Byte Commander
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  • That really depends on the settings within BleachBit. Most normal people don't set it to overwrite the data with multiple passes because it takes a long time and serves very little purpose. I have used BleachBit for years to free up memory with no elevated security settings. Anyway, he might also be able to recover his files from a cloud or local backup. – Hack-R Jun 30 '16 at 18:11
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Bleachbit says you can't:

http://www.bleachbit.org/documentation/shred-files-wipe-disk

Shredding/secure erasing stuff have the very same problem as encryption does. Someone will always find a way to break it sooner or later. Until that happens, better backup your data.

heemayl
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ipse lute
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  • No, secure erasing is fundamentally different from encryption. Encryption is made to be reversible by design (you plan to decrypt your files some day), but not shredding. – Dmitry Grigoryev Jul 01 '16 at 06:15
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Not only can you not recover your files, but this is one reason why BleachBit is overkill for Linux.

Linux is pretty skilled at cleaning up after itself, and there's no application for a "system cleaner" like CCleaner on Windows.

BleachBit is definitely what you want if you want to securely delete personal data or think it's a solution to eradicating a rootkit, which, as you have discovered, means it is gone forever.

cat
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    You wrote "Linux is pretty skilled at cleaing up after itself, but how so exactly? Uninstalling an application, such as Firefox or Google Chrome, leaves its settings in the user's home directory. The "registry" of .desktop shortcuts can have orphans and corruption. Please also see Myth: Linux Doesn't Need a Registry Cleaner Finally, there is not a central place in Linux to clean all of a user's applications, such as the history of all browsers and all other applications. – Andrew Jun 30 '16 at 14:39
  • And that's fine for user data. But Linux as a whole runs on hundreds of millions of servers in critical applications and had done so for literally a decade and a half without BleachBit. Also, if you want to make your user data go away when you uninstall a program, that's what sudo apt purge whatever. – cat Jun 30 '16 at 14:51
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    Also, did you just link me to a blog written by BleachBit devs on how BleachBit isn't bad? Na, that's not biased at all. – cat Jun 30 '16 at 14:52
  • @Andrew the comments on the blog post you linked answer you questions and dispel the myth that bleachbit is required. Leaving config files in a user's home directory is important for updates/migration, and it's trivial to delete them after you've removed an application. – amc Jun 30 '16 at 14:59
  • @amc please do note that bleachbit only touches things such as application caches and history and not configuration files. (Well, in root mode you can delete some localizations that you don't need.) So I'd not call BS on that article either. –  Jun 30 '16 at 18:11
  • @user2064000 At the hands of a user who doesn't know exactly which boxes to tick, it's equally destructive, and perhaps needlessy more destructive than rm or Delete in your file manager – cat Jun 30 '16 at 18:45
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You may be able to do a System Restore and retrieve some files depending on the length of time and automatic restore point creation.

Douglas Mimes
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