Deleting from drive? (1 Viewer)

[jmhecker]

I reinstalled Windows XP on my HTPC today. I then installed MediaPortal (1.0.4.23491), and the latest version of MP-TVSeries, and began to re-create my databases (I opted against backing them up, as I had them completely fubard anyway, heh).

As I was updating the database, I had stopped it mid-way through, as I remembered that I had to re-name some of my shows so that the importer would pick them up without me having to add any custom expressions.

Before I renamed them, I went to the Details tab of the MP-TVSeries configuration screen, highlighted the first series that was listed (in this case, Ally McBeal), and pressed Delete on the keyboard to nuke that series from the database, and pressed "Yes" when the confirmation dialog came up asking if I am sure I wanted to remove it from the DB. I proceeded to do this for some of the other seasons that I had in the db, when I noticed that my 1tb drive that my shows are on was just a churning away. I immideately stopped what I was doing, and opened up an explorer window, and noticed my D drive (the 1tb holding my TV shows) was nearly empty (when it should have been full).

For some reason, when I was deleting the episodes from the MP-TVSeries list, it was deleting them from my drive as well. Why? The confirmation dialog mentioned nothing about that, and needless to say, I am not happy with losing over 1/2 of my collection which had taken me years to build up (over 80 years worth of shows, 2000+ episodes)

Now, I know that with this being free and open source software that I have no right to bitch, so I thought I would bring this to the attention of the developers so that it wont happen to anyone else.

I am running Windows XP Service Pack 3, on a cheap IBM Thinkcenter computer (cheap, but runs MP great).

And on the topic, I have managed to undelete about 25% of what was lost...not nearly as much as I would have liked to, but oh well...time to start rebuilding.

:EDIT:
I have been poking around the source code, and I do see that it was supposed to ask me if I wanted to delete the files from the disk...it never did ask me that...I don't know well enough with programming to diagnose the problem, or what caused it to occur, just thought I would let you know that the prompt didn't appear.

 

[ltfearme]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and sorry you lost part of the collection I know for sure it works ok in the MediaPortal GUI as I use that often...I've been meaning to change configuration so it acts the same way rather than present two dialogs.

Will have a look and see if I can reproduce, will push out another release with a fix ASAP.

 

[jmhecker]

With this current situation in mind, you wouldn't happen to know of any software that can do a low-level scan of that 1TB drive to help me possibly retrieve some of that data, do you?

I am currently using Active(r) UNDELETE Standard Edition 7.0.047. I installed it at 3AM today, and started scanning the drive with it. It has been going for 11 hours now, and it still has 5 hours left. I dont know how well it is going to work, and on the off chance it doesnt find a damned thing, other recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[zilexa]

If you did other things on that drive after the shows got deleted (like downloads in progress, copying files or whatever) you can save a lot of time by simply not scanning your drive. Because it will be a waiste of time. Try Recuva, if it doesnt find what you need or says the files cannot be recovered... simply redownload those shows.

Reason: paid programs and specialized companies may be able to retrieve all the data... but thats expensive and not worth it.
Free programs or others will only be able to retrieve parts... useless if you want complete tv shows back.

 

[Dadoes]

GetDataBack worked well for me in the past.

 

[jmhecker]

Being in the IT field for 15+ years, as soon as that data was deleted I knew better than to do ANYTHING on that drive, heh. I just have never done any data recovery before, so was unsure of the appropriate applications to use.

The Active UNDELETE scan is STILL going, and once that is done and I see what (if anything) it has found, I will try the Recuva and/or GetDataBack to see what they can do for me. I thank you all for your help in this matter and will keep you informed.

 

[stormsh]

...

 

[jmhecker]

ARE U ***** KIDDING ME?????? Thats an issue of ***** epic proportions!!! I lost all my series becaus of that. I liked your plugin until now, really. But thats not funny, not at all. I really don´t now what to say. Thats so, AAAARARRRRRRRRRARARR, damnit. What DATABASE program delets the real source? Who expects that???? Delete the **** in the db but not on the harddrive. Even if get it back with what ever program, you really have to fix it. Like: NOW. Or yesterday, or something. Damnit.
Btw: I don´t care if its been deleted or not.

My TV Series, like any software (Free or not), has the possibility of having bugs...there is no need to respond with the attitude and aggression in a manner such as you did. If you do not like the product, then do not use it.

Just my $0.02.

FYI: even after the 'hiccup' that I had, I am still using MediaPortal and My TV Series on a daily basis. Its a great piece of software. Thanks for all of the hard work.

 

[moab]

I had an issue with the regular delete/clean up confusing.
I selected delete all recordings with errors and it deleted about 95% of all my recordings.
I was expecting it to just delete the recordings in my current folder (a series name) and then only the ones that I could not play.
Instead it recursively whacked nearly all my recordings in all folders. Presumably the recordings all had some tiny errors that were negligible to me.
Of course the golden rule is to do a complete backup before attempting any recursive deletes. I should've known better.

 

[ltfearme]

I have been trying to reproduce this issue but can not.

If I select a Series/Season/Episode and select delete I get prompted to delete from database. There is some options Yes,YesToAll,No.

Selecting Yes deletes from database, selecting YesToAll deletes from database and rembers that choice so you can continue deleting stuff from database.

After this you are prompted with another dialog to Delete from Disk, here you are presented with 4 options Yes,YesToAll,No,NoToAll

Obviously the yes options delete from Disk and the YesToAll will remember choice and automatically delete from disk in future deletions for that session.

Did you by any chance choice Yes or YesToAll on the 'Delete From Disk' prompt mistakenly?


From a usability point of view, I really don't like the two prompts. I want to re-do the delete logic in configuration so its similar to how its presented in the GUI e.g.

Show a Form with 3 choices:

1. Delete From Disk
2. Delete From DataBase
3. Delete From Disk and Database

buttons: Cancel, OK

also add a checkbox to remember choice possibly.

I think this is more intuitive.