Files disappeared?
I was moving files from my internal hard drive to an external hard drive under Linux (Zorin OS). The file transfer process was completely finished. The files were no longer internal, and only a fraction of them ended up on the external hard drive.
Heavy handling error: Data transfer to USB devices is asynchronous. For the sending application (file manager, etc.), this is already completed and in truth, depending on the hapten memory size, there are many, many data in the “copy memory” and not yet on the USB device. For this reason, there is the “safe removal” of USB devices.
In addition, I would never use “move files” but would always use “copy files” when the target is a USB device and only then delete the source when you have checked that everything has arrived at the target.
The file is…
This is because reading and writing processes are cached. This means that the data is first placed in the memory and is written from there slowly in the background on the disk (of which you don’t get anything)
If you pull a disk out, you always have to securely separate the disk beforehand.
Such an option is offered in the idr file manager when you click on the corresponding drive.
The following happens: The data carrier is immediately blocked for further access and the cache is fully written out.
Only when the computer tells you that you are allowed to pull the stick, and the flash on the stick does not indicate any access (because it can be that the stick is running internally as well), you can pull it off safely.
Apart from that, you should always proceed in such a way that at no time is the only existing copy on a USB stick. A USB stick is a pure transport memory that could have dropped you into the toilet or the like.
That means if the file is not yet in the backup:
If you no longer have the first computer available (because it is a public computer or the like) or the file must be deleted, the file will send you in addition as an email or something. But also then as quickly as possible bring the file to secure port.
This could have been the mistake: You only assumed that the process was over, because if necessary the “shift window” has closed
Anyway: Don’t make backups? 🤷 ♂️