I'm very new to home labs and have been running a Satisfactory server in Docker for about a month. I asked an AI tool to increase the server tick rate, but it deleted the existing container and created a new one. I don't think the world save was backed up after I uploaded it, so roughly 100 hours of progress shared with a friend may be gone. Is there anywhere Docker might still have the save, such as a volume or leftover container data, or is recovery impossible?
3 Answers
If you didn’t find a volume, stop making changes to the storage immediately. On Linux, Docker data is often under `/var/lib/docker`, though the exact location can vary. Depending on your filesystem and setup, a recovery utility might find deleted data, but there’s no guarantee. Avoid starting more containers on that disk until you’ve checked for backups or considered filesystem recovery.
A container’s internal filesystem is disposable, so recreating it usually removes anything that wasn’t stored in a bind mount or Docker volume. First check whether a volume still exists with `docker volume ls`, and inspect the old container configuration if it’s still listed with `docker ps -a`. If the save directory was mounted persistently, you may be able to attach that same volume to the new container. If it was only stored inside the deleted container and there’s no backup, recovery is unlikely.
Look at how the server was started, especially any Docker Compose file or command-line `-v`/`--mount` options. Setup guides normally map the game’s save folder to a host directory or named volume. Containers can be recreated safely when that persistent storage is separate from the container itself.
The tool may have generated the Docker configuration for me. I’ll check the old container and volume settings carefully rather than assuming the new setup mounted the save directory correctly.