{"id":29,"date":"2013-06-26T10:29:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T10:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:44:22","slug":"file-recovery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/user-faq\/file-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"File Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Within research storage shares<\/em> (your allocated storage areas), files which have been accidentally deleted or corrupted in some way may be recovered easily using the share’s “shapshots” – the the hourly and daily backups<\/em>. This is something that users can do – no need to wait for IT Services to do it! <\/p>\n

These snapshots<\/em> exist within a hidden directory, called .snapshot<\/code>, which is located at the top level within the share. File management tools will not reveal .snapshot<\/code> unless the path is manually entered. Within this hidden directory exists a snapshot of your share for each hour for the last 24 hours, and for each day for the last 35 days. <\/p>\n

These snapshots are readonly, i.e., it not possible to delete them or change them in any way. To restore a file, you copy the file from the snapshot<\/em> area to the main storage area.<\/p>\n

How do I recover files from a CIFS share on Windows?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Open Computer<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  2. Right click on the mapped network\/isilon drive (e.g., your R:\/ drive) and select Restore previous versions<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  3. Wait a moment while a list of snapshots loads up. Each will have a date and time next to it.<\/li>\n
  4. Open a snapshot folder which is dated\/timestamped before the date\/time you deleted the file(s) you wish to recover.<\/li>\n
  5. The snapshot folder will open in a new window. You should now be able to find your missing file and open it to check it.<\/li>\n
  6. If you are happy with the version of the file, copy-and-paste it or drag-and-drop it to your mapped drive (e.g., your R:\/ drive.) Close all windows associated with the snapshots when you have finished.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How do I recover files from a CIFS share on Linux?<\/h2>\n

    Suppose today is 21 June 2025 and we wish to recover a file called notes.txt<\/code> that was deleted yesterday:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Change to the .snapshot directory on your mount\/share where you have it mounted on your system. For example:\n
      \r\ncd  \/mnt\/myshare<\/em>\/.snapshot\r\n                      #\r\n                      # Note: you won't be able to see the .snapshot folder\r\n                      # if you list the contents of your share (ls -a \/mnt\/myshare).\r\n                      # But it IS there. \r\n<\/pre>\n
    2. List all the snapshot folders, which shows the dates and times of the snapshot in the folder names\n
      \r\nls -l\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
    3. Enter the directory for 19 June (remember, this example was written on 21 June 2025 and we assume we deleted a file on the 20th June 2025), for example\n
      \r\nReynolds_EPS_CIFS_28days_2025-06-19_00-30-00\r\n                  #\r\n                  # Despite the name indicating 28 days of backups, there are\r\n                  # actually 35 folders representing 35 days of backups.\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
    4. \nWithin this directory, you will find a copy of notes.txt<\/code> from two days ago (in our example).  Copy this back to your share.<\/p>\n
      \r\ncp notes.txt \/mnt\/myshare<\/em>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
    5. To copy an entire folder and its contents from the snapshot area to the live storage:\n
      \r\ncp -r somefolder \/mnt\/myshare<\/em>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      How do I recover files from a CIFS share on OS-X?<\/h2>\n
      Suppose today is 21 June 2025 and we wish to recover a file called notes.txt<\/code> that was deleted yesterday:<\/p>\n
      Via the Terminal command line<\/strong><\/p>\n
        \n
      1. Change to the .snapshot directory on your mount\/share where you have it mounted on your system. For example:\n
        \r\ncd \/Volumes\/myshare<\/em>\/.snapshot\r\n                         #\r\n                         # Note: you won't be able to see the .snapshot folder\r\n                         # if you list the contents of your share (ls -a \/Volumes\/myshare).\r\n                         # But it IS there. \r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
      2. List all the snapshot folders, which shows the dates and times of the snapshot in the folder names\n
        \r\nls -l\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
      3. Enter the directory for 19 June (remember, this example was written on 21 June 2025 and we assume we deleted a file on the 20th June 2025), for example\n
        \r\ncd Reynolds_EPS_CIFS_28days_2025-06-19_00-30-00\r\n                      #\r\n                      # Despite the name indicating 28 days of backups, there are\r\n                      # actually 35 folders representing 35 days of backups.\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
      4. \nWithin this directory, you will find a copy of notes.txt<\/code> from two days ago (in our example).  Copy this back to your share.<\/p>\n
        \r\ncp notes.txt \/Volumes\/myshare<\/em>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
      5. To copy an entire folder and its contents from the snapshot area to the live storage:\n
        \r\ncp -r somefolder \/mnt\/myshare<\/em>\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        How do I recover files from a NFS share on Linux?<\/h2>\n
        This also applies to additions RDS areas on the CSF and iCSF.<\/p>\n
        This is done using the hidden .snapshot<\/code> directory in exactly the same way as for CIFS shares, above<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
        Introduction Within research storage shares (your allocated storage areas), files which have been accidentally deleted or corrupted in some way may be recovered easily using the share’s “shapshots” – the the hourly and daily backups. This is something that users can do – no need to wait for IT Services to do it! These snapshots exist within a hidden directory, called .snapshot, which is located at the top level within the share. File management tools.. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/1156"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/rds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}