Recovering from apt-get dist-upgrade

fastfwd wrote:

jackerhack wrote: logged in as root .... then did an "apt-get dist-upgrade" .... The ReadyNAS was great when it worked, but now it's left me shaky over how easy it is to lose data with it. Well, rm -Rf / is easy, too, but it's no reason to be "shaky" about the safety of your data. Fear not. If you can resist the urge to blindly overwrite its operating system again after you get this sorted, your Duo will likely continue to provide the same reliable service that it always has.

But this isn't about wiping data. This is about keeping software up to date. On Debian, apt-get dist-upgrade is always a good thing, guaranteed to cause no damage. ReadyOS has broken that promise from Debian and I was unprepared for that.

Also, software installations go bad. It's in the nature of software. I've taken hard disks from computer to computer for years and never lost data because both the OS and me have the sense to not wipe non-boot disks. That ReadyOS needs to wipe disks -- even in my scenario, where I'm trying to restore the OS, not change to a new configuration -- means that I can't trust it as my archival data store. It's volatile storage.

FWIW, I put the disk on a SATA-to-USB adapter and connected it to my laptop to check that my data was still there, but turns out that adapter supports 1TB disks max. Now I need to get a new adapter.