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TIFU by losing 4.5 years of PhD research data by not checking if the backup was done properly

This actually happened over a year ago, but I can look back on it now and laugh since I just defended my PhD today

About 4.5 years into my PhD, I was working on a journal paper. I gathered all the data, wrote the code, did all the simulations, plotted the graphs, almost finished writing the paper.

The lab's IT said they had to take my PC and perform some security upgrades, and so they had to take my PC and wipe it first. They would need a few days to back everything up and wipe, and then put all the files back.

I told them I had an urgent submission to make, I'll make the backup, just wipe and send to me quickly.

So I copied all the files to dropbox, and saw the green tick mark that says the backup is done, and then I give it to them.

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The FU is realized right after that.

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Dropbox sometimes gives a green tick mark, and then it turns blue and backs it up. I just saw the tick mark, and in my impatience, just gave it to them without letting the actual backup happen. Only a handful of small files did get backed up, and that was it.

IT wiped everything and flipped the bits, so the data was lost forever. I, of course, had a mini heart attack once I realized what happened, but it was all lost. I also had data and paper drafts of my prior published works, they were lost too.

Thankfully, my professor was considerate and said I just need to redo the stuff that wasn't published yet. Also, I actually had the draft of that paper saved, so I was able to use it to help rewrite the code from memory, and thankfully I bookmarked the links from where I got the data. It was a few months of very heavy work, but managed to replicate the work, and got it published.

The other stuff we didn't care much about, since they were already published.

Now IT actually has a new policy in place, which is that they will backup everything no matter what. Apparently my incident was the starting point lol.

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So yeah, everyone, please make multiple backups of everything, like I do now lol.

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TL;DR: Lost years of PhD research work in my lab's PC since I didn't carefully check my backup before IT wiped it for upgrading, lost everything. I was able to do some damage control, and can look back on it now since my PhD is complete today.

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