[magicalhippo]

I lost the first 5-6 years of code thanks to an IBM Deathstar[1] when I was 20.

Got really depressed by it at the time, as it included most of the projects I worked on at the time. After that I got super paranoid about having backups.

I do enjoy going back and looking at the code I still have though. Being self-taught it's mostly not terribly great, but I do have fond memories of finally cracking a certain nut or figuring out some neat trick.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskstar

[snvzz]

That tough lesson about backups.

Many a person has had to learn it the hard way.

[grepfru_it]

Left all backups at a remote storage facility. Remote storage facility called me one day and said all of your hardware and media has been lost, except for this one [insert oldest most worthless computer of the bunch]. Cue me raging, cursing out this storage facility, threatening to never communicate with them ever again. Finally accepted the fault lied within me. Up until yesterday, I only had redundant storage but no true backups. So I purchased an LTO-5 and now I have two backup sets onsite and a third offsite at my colocation facility.

In this story the remote storage facility was my mom's house shortly before the GFC. The hardware were varying PS/2 computers from 286 to 486s with hard drives of zip files of my QBASIC, TurboPascal, Delphi, and VisualBasic code. The only hardware saved was our first computer, an 8088. All because she didn't want the clutter in the house anymore. No contact, no chance to retrieve said wares.. just poof gone. Gone were the Z80 ASM files of my rendition of PunchOut for the Ti-83+. Can't reference my old writings that I saved in various TXT files on the gazillion 3.5" floppy disks I kept in an old laundry basket. 5.25" floppies of DOS installs, random games, and an ancient version of SCO Unix. Gone.

Everyone learns the hard way.

[snvzz]

>All because she didn't want the clutter in the house anymore.

A recurrent theme in retrocomputing forums. Never trust family with old computers; they consider them worthless.

I somehow managed to save mine. Hardware is with me, and data is well replicated, with warm, cold, remote, as well as cloud copies.

It is also all encrypted, thus it has a good chance to remain private unless I decide otherwise.

[snvzz]

The deathstar of legend.