On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 3:47 AM, Bishwa Subedi <subedi.bishwa@yahoo.com> wrote:

I tried to use phenix in my personal computer for small checks and convenient use. I accidentally happened to make my project directory /user/XXX/Documents. Even though it was not the intended folder for running Phenix and later changed it to some other folders, I noticed that all my documents in that folder has disappeared (folder is empty). I do not see the files in trash folder as well. I assume this happened because of selecting documents as the project directory and phenix empties the folder before use, am I correct?

No, Phenix does not delete any existing files! I assumed that it would be run in tandem with other programs (data processing software, CCP4, etc.) and these would all output to the same directory. The only time it will delete anything is when you delete the project, and then only if you check the boxes requesting that it delete the tracking directory (.phenix) or the entire directory. These are not turned on by default, but at least one other user managed to wipe out his Documents folder this way. Since last October (nightly builds after version 1.8.4) even this should be impossible, since it first checks whether the project directory is one of a predefined list that can't be removed.

The other thing that could happen is if you ask it to relocate a project, it will move the entire folder (including all files inside, not just Phenix-related).

If so is there any way to recover those files?

If you asked Phenix to remove the entire directory, no - unless you were regularly backing it up, of course.

-Nat