Today had some important markdown file that accidentally deleted on my SSD and had to go over the recovery of it.

All I did was this:

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run sudo systemctl status fstrim.timer to check how often TRIM runs on my system (apparently it runs weekly and the next scheduled run was in 3 days)

run sudo pacman -S testdisk

run sudo photorec

choose the correct partition where the files were deleted

choose filesystem type (ext4)

choose a destination folder where to save recovered files

start recovery

10-15 minutes and it’s done.

open nvim in parent folder and grep for content in the file that I remember adding today

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That’s it - the whole process was so fast. No googling through 10 different sites with their shitty flashy UIs promising “free recovery,” wondering whether this is even trustworthy to install on your machine, dealing with installers that’ll sneak in annoying software if you click too fast, only to have them ask for payment later. No navigating complex GUIs either.

I was so thankful for this I actually donated to the maintainers of the software. Software done right.