Remember the backup directory only contains a copy of all of your files from the night before. If you need to restore a file that you deleted days ago, or just minutes ago (assuming minutes ago was still today), then you are not going to find the file here.
If it is really important and it was in you account overnight for at least one of these backups than you may be able to have OIT see if they can not recover the file somehow for you. Note that this is only done in the rarest and most dire circumstances.
In class demo
In Class demo
linux1[24]# ls 291u bin grades.gnumeric oit sue Desktop courses images questionnaire.txt tmp Mail date notes sas winscp.RND PUTTY.RND eve nsmail ssh_known_hosts.txt www linux1[25]# rm -f questionnaire.txt linux1[26]# ls 291u bin grades.gnumeric oit tmp Desktop courses images sas winscp.RND Mail date notes ssh_known_hosts.txt www PUTTY.RND eve nsmail sue linux1[27]# cp ~/../backup/home/questionnaire.txt ~/ linux1[28]# ls 291u bin grades.gnumeric oit sue Desktop courses images questionnaire.txt tmp Mail date notes sas winscp.RND PUTTY.RND eve nsmail ssh_known_hosts.txt www linux1[29]# |