recovering data from a preceding installation of Fedora..

[Rick Stevens]

On 12/16/2014 09:05 AM, Angelo Moreschini wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I I had to re install Fedora on my computer, I did it and now I have to
> restore the data from the old installation.
>
> Using an external support for the disc ("USB to SATA / IDE converter") I
> can access the old drive, and using Nautilus to see all the data that I
> would recover, but I do not have permission to copy them (on the disk
> where I made the new installation of Fedora).
>
> I tried to mount the partition (where the data is recorded that I want
> to recover), but the directories and the data that I have not mounted
> directly readable ... So I can not make the transfer of data that I need ...
>
> What is the correct way to conduct this operation ???

It is most likely that your user ID and group ID (UID and GID) are
different on the new installation than they were on the old one. As
a result, you'll need to do the mount and copy operations as the root
user and convert the UID/GID of the files you're copying from the old
installation to the UID and GID of your account on the new system.

To find your current UID/GID, log into the new system and issue the
command "id". Example:

	[rick at localhost ~]$ id
	uid=1000(rick) gid=1000(rick) groups=1000(rick),10(wheel)

So I'm user ID 1000 and group ID 1000. Now, as the root user, mount
your drive and use the "cp -an" command to copy the files from the old
drive to wherever you need them (the "-n" part will keep you from 
overwriting existing files on the new system). If you really want to
stomp on everything, omit the "n" (e.g. "cp -a" only). Also keep in
mind that this will NOT copy hidden files or directories (those that
start with a ".", such as ".bashrc" and the like). Those you have to
copy individually or use a tool such as "rsync" or "find".

Once you're done with that, again as root, try using:

	chown -R youruserID:yourgroupID /path/to/new/files

to change the UID and GIDs of the files at "/path/to/new/files" to your
new IDs (that you got from the "id" command).

That's it in a nutshell. There may be better ways to do it and you'll
have to adapt these instructions to fit your particular case.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    ricks at alldigital.com -
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-       "I'd explain it to you, but your brain might explode."       -
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