After creating a link to a folder, folders' content is empty

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1

Created a Link with ln -s Programms/ Programms_Link, now all of my programs are gone ?

Edit : The filesystem on which the programs resided is an NTFS partition.

2

Are gone from where?

3

Are gone from where
=> the folder that has received a link, in which (the folder) they (the files (the programs)) have resided in.

Creating a link to folder made the folder go from a couple gigabytes to a couple of kilobytes

4

Something else happened. I use a lot of folder links and that never happened to me:

[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ ls Programs/
JMathEdit
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ du -h Programs/ 
3,6M    Programs/JMathEdit/app/fonts
129K    Programs/JMathEdit/app/samples
3,7M    Programs/JMathEdit/app
6,0K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy/limited
4,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy/unlimited
17K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy
63K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security
76K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf
5,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/include/linux
201K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/include
37K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.base
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.datatransfer
35K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.desktop
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.prefs
56K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.xml
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/jdk.httpserver
142K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal
2,0M    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/fonts
76K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/jli
546K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/oblique-fonts
257K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/security
21M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/server
90M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib
90M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime
95M     Programs/JMathEdit
95M     Programs/
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ ln -s Programs/ Programs_Link
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ du -h Programs/
3,6M    Programs/JMathEdit/app/fonts
129K    Programs/JMathEdit/app/samples
3,7M    Programs/JMathEdit/app
6,0K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy/limited
4,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy/unlimited
17K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security/policy
63K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf/security
76K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/conf
5,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/include/linux
201K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/include
37K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.base
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.datatransfer
35K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.desktop
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.prefs
56K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/java.xml
3,5K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal/jdk.httpserver
142K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/legal
2,0M    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/fonts
76K     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/jli
546K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/oblique-fonts
257K    Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/security
21M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib/server
90M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime/lib
90M     Programs/JMathEdit/runtime
95M     Programs/JMathEdit
95M     Programs/
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ du -h Programs_Link
0       Programs_Link
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ ls Programs_Link/
JMathEdit
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ rm Programs_Link
[lcoimbra@dg-lcoimbra ~]$ ls Programs
JMathEdit

As you can see, it’s perfectly safe.

5

I’m not sure you can use Linux links in a NTFS partition. Although there are links in Windows, they work differently. The filesystem needs to support it. I suggest you use a Windows recovery software (in Windows) to try to recover the lost data.

1 Like
6

I’ve made lots of links (in ntfs and ext4) as well, this is the first time breaking.

So there wouldn’t be a way to recover the things from linux?

What recovery tools would you recommend ?
Never needed to use any recovery software because I usually have good backups

7

On a NTFS partition I’m not sure.

8

Then you must have done something different. You can create a directory, put some content in it and test again to see what happens.

9 
man ln

Mount your NTFS partition in a permanent location e.g. /data/windows

I not have tried to make a link to a folder on a nfts formatted partition but I assume the it will work.

While in your home folder execute

ln -sf /data/windows/path/to/linked/folder ~/Programms_Link
10

My shared drive is mounted with an fstab config :slight_smile:

To be honest I’m not sure what the command should accomplish ?

I don’t have difficulties creating links, I have difficulty dealing with freak occurrences like creating a link and then seeing all of ones data removed …

It doesn’t seam like it would restore the contents of a “wiped” directory

11

If you have a dual boot system, be aware that fast boot should be disable and you never should hibernate an OS and boot a different one to use the same partition. You will loose data if you do that.

12

Creating a link does not ever remove files - at least not that I know of - or have experienced.

But I will play with the concept …

I couldn’t make data disappear - but I also don’t know the circumstance - only from your description.

Steps I did:

  1. Create a exfat formatted USB
  2. Create a mount point /data/usb
  3. Mount the USB device to the mount point
    mount /dev/sdx1 /data/usb
  4. Create a folder tree
    mkdir /data/usb/test/if/data/dissappear
  5. Create a test file text.txt
  6. Attach a second USB and mount it to the a part of the tree
    mount /dev/sdy1 /data/usb/test
  7. create a new file /data/usb/test/test.txt
  8. try umount the first usb
    umount /dev/sdx1
    /data/usb: target busy
  9. umount /dev/sdy1
  10. check the path /data/usb/
    which still contains the previously hidden files

So I think you somehow has hidden the content much the same way I could hide the first usb when mounting the second.

I really don’t think you data is gone - puff - what I suggested is that a link can be created different ways as described in

$ man ln

...
       ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME
       ln [OPTION]... TARGET
       ln [OPTION]... TARGET... DIRECTORY
       ln [OPTION]... -t DIRECTORY TARGET...
...

And you depending on the chosen command it has opposite effects of what you might have been expecting.

13

Yeah, as others had said, creating a link can not remove any files. The soft link creation process doesn’t even bother with the destination. You can create a soft link to a non-existent file/folder if you want. It’s not gonna even check it. So no, creating a link didn’t remove any files.

What else did you do?

Also, You have to be careful with mounts. As @linux-aarhus explained, they can hide some folders from view.

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