Don't depend on your host to back up their servers. This guy erased every single website, code, software and backup with a single command line code.
bill
2:54 am on Apr 15, 2016 (gmt 0)
Saw that article earlier... Surprising that guy didn't know the power of
rm -rf
Andy Langton
8:53 am on Apr 15, 2016 (gmt 0)
rm -rf {foo}/{bar}
Variables were not set due to a code error. I believe he was using an automation script. Apparently managed to get data back via a data recovery company!
Lugh
9:45 pm on Apr 15, 2016 (gmt 0)
Ah guys, that's a hoax which has been around in various alternative guises for a long time.
csdude55
9:50 pm on Apr 15, 2016 (gmt 0)
Something similar really did happen to me, though :-(
Back in 2008, I was still getting acquainted with MySQL. I forget the specifics now, but I was trying to delete something, and typed:
DELETE * FROM table WHERE x = y
I'm not sure if the error was because all of my X's equaled Y's, or if it was because of the * , but I ended up deleting my entire database! That was 7 years worth of data, gone. Without a backup!
Back then, I had data emailed to me as well as posted, so I at least had emailed copies of everything. But the job was too big, so I never did get everything restored.
That taught me the valuable lesson of nightly backups :-)
mack
9:53 pm on Apr 15, 2016 (gmt 0)
Never underestimate the importance of good robust and up to date backups...And knowing how to restore everything.
Mack.
Lugh
6:10 pm on Apr 18, 2016 (gmt 0)
Coincidentally, a similar story, "Web host 123-reg deletes sites in clean-up error", in the BBC today. [bbc.com ]
Andy Langton
6:28 pm on Apr 18, 2016 (gmt 0)
Strangely, this one turned out to be a viral-marketing "hoax" (http://meta.serverfault.com/questions/8696/what-to-do-with-the-rm-rf-hoax-question). The 123reg one is real. Discussion on the latter here:
Hoax or not, it is a timely reminder to back up your stuff!
nomis5
10:59 am on May 10, 2016 (gmt 0)
I managed to delete a whole dealing room FX system many years ago. All the transactions, programs the lot. It took several days to recover and get back to normal operations.
Someone changed the wires on the back of my dedicated testing PC when I was on holiday. When I came in to work, I sat down at the terminal to practice a new install. My first action was to delete the system and then begin the install. I deleted the entire live system in about 30 seconds.
