undo git reset --hard, how to do it?

Question

My uncommitted files deleted by git reset --hard command. How can I recover? I tried git reflog etc but it stays at 0%.

Checking object directories: 100% (256/256), done.ories:   0% (1/256)

Answer 1

For staged file, you can check the output in git fsck, but for private files, as in not even staged (git add), then those files are gone.
git reflog would only help to restore past commits.

Double-check with:

• your OS for any backup in place (like Time Machine on Mac)
• your IDE for any local history (like Jetbrain IntelliJ IDEA local history), which could help restore those deleted files.

Answer 2

If you have staged your file, you can try git fsck --lost-found then take a look into .git/lost-found/other and using git show <SHA> check what you can recover

So I've recreated your scenario: (created new_file then stage it, and git reset --hard afterwards)

Checked the content of .git/lost-found/other

Then recover the content git show <SHA>:

Fortunately in my case I had a small number of commits so it was easy to find it.