My scratch files were purged. Can I retrieve them?
Unfortunately, once files are purged, they are purged permanently and cannot be retrieved. Notices of pending purges are sent one week in advance to your Purdue email address. Be sure to regularly check your Purdue email or set up forwarding to an account you do frequently check.
Link to section 'Can you tell me what files were purged?' of 'My scratch files were purged. Can I retrieve them?' Can you tell me what files were purged?
You can see a list of files removed with the command lastpurge. The command accepts a -n option to specify how many weeks/purges ago you want to look back at.