Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To Think He Should Have Cancelled The Data Transfer

36 replies

fridakahlo · 29/03/2012 22:52

My laptop has been playing up so I took it to a local computer repair place for an overhaul.
He uninstalled windows and then reinstalled it, having first backed up my hard drive to another computer.
He phoned me this morning to say that it was all done and I could come and pick it up. I did and having briefly checked it over, it all looked good and it was running a lot quicker than it had been.
When I get home this afternoon,I have a more indepth look.
Four of my documents are missing, one is a ten thousand word manuscript, one is a thirty thousand word manuscript, one is a fifty thousand word manuscript and one is a collection of poems.
I had all of these backed up to a USB drive except for the fifity thousand word one.
My OH who is in IT has a look but he can't find them either.
I phone the guy up annd he tells me to come over so he can take a look.
I do the half hour drive and lo and behold when I get there, he cannot find them either (because they are not there!).
He won't let me search through the saved copy of the hard drive because the computer it is one is five hours through a seven hour data transfer. As he puts it 'a whole days work for him'.
I point out that with the loss of these documents we are looking at over five years worth of my blood sweat and tears.
Not budging but I can come back in the morning and look then.
I pointed out that tomorrow I will have my three year old with me.
So am I being unreasonable thinking he should have cancelled the data transfer and will I be unreasonable to allow my three year old to run amok around all his delicate computer equipment, when I go back in the morning?

OP posts:
AllthatshewantsisanotherBBaby · 29/03/2012 22:54

Hmm its tough. I would prepare yourself for the people who will say you should of backed up yourself but yanbu to let your 3 wreck the joint as that was quite discourteous of him

MsHighwater · 29/03/2012 22:57

Not sure but if the 50,000 word document was so important, it should have been backed up to the USB drive, too.

YWprobablyBU, I think

lisaro · 29/03/2012 22:58

If you let your child run loose you will be vvvu. You should have kept back ups yourself.

JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 29/03/2012 23:00

hmm. You're both BU.

trixymalixy · 29/03/2012 23:00

Yikes, I feel for you, but it should have been backed up.

And him cancelling the data transfer would not have made any difference to the outcome so yabu.

WorraLiberty · 29/03/2012 23:01

YANBU to be upset but it's not his fault you didn't back it up.

You would of course be unreasonable to allow your child to 'run amok' as you put it...unless you want your child to think that's an ok way to behave in a shop.

Threeprinces · 29/03/2012 23:03

YANBU to be annoyed but YABU to expect him to cancel a job which has already taken 5 hours. If your data is there it will still be there in the morning.

Original poster
fridakahlo · 29/03/2012 23:07

But why not just tell me to come over in the morning, since he knew before I drove over, that I would not be able to do the search then?
And the three year old will be controlled, to the best of my ability, considering I will be searching the hard drive and we might be there for a while.

OP posts:
niceguy2 · 29/03/2012 23:07

YABU

Firstly you've got all your documents bar one backed up. It's a 50,000 word manuscript so I cannot see how it's 5 years of blood sweat and tears. So either you have lied to the IT guy or you've been negligent in backing your critical files up for 5 years.

You then expect him to cancel 5 hours of work so you can take a look when you demand it and for him presumably to redo that 5 hours for free later?

Is that about it?

Petrean · 29/03/2012 23:12

I'm sorry but I think YABU. Go back tomorrow with your toddler. I have a toddler too... They don't stop you going out, I'm sure you can get them to behave while the man checks for you.

cakewench · 29/03/2012 23:13

You should have backed up the file yourself, if it was that important. But you know that already.

He was being U in that he knew he was in the middle of running a long data transfer when you rang. He should have told you that coming straight back wouldn't help as he wouldn't be able to access the backup.

But if the question is are you being U to expect him to stop the data transfer, then yes, you are. sorry. For the reasons given above by niceguy :( Good luck tomorrow.

Original poster
fridakahlo · 29/03/2012 23:19

No, the fifty thousand word manuscript is something that I have been working on since last August, the other three are things that have been around for over five years and whilst the majority of it was written over a ten month period I have been tweaking it and adding to it over that period. So no, I did not lie.

OP posts:
Original poster
fridakahlo · 29/03/2012 23:20

Petrean, he's already told me that I will be the one doing the looking.

OP posts:
niceguy2 · 29/03/2012 23:33

I point out that with the loss of these documents we are looking at over five years worth of my blood sweat and tears.

I had all of these backed up to a USB drive except for the fifity thousand word one.

So you had everything bar one document backed up which you have been working on since last August. So not the 5 years you were implying at all. Call it bending the truth if you prefer then but you were still being unreasonable.

So over the last 10 months you didn't think it was important enough to backup the manuscript once yet now it's so important the IT guy has to scrub 5 hours work so you can look NOW.

As for you doing the looking, it makes perfect sense. He probably restored the obvious directories such as my documents, pictures etc. If the file isn't there then chances are it was stored elsewhere on the original disk. You will know far better than him where it could be stored.

Good luck for tomorrow.

WorraLiberty · 29/03/2012 23:37

And the three year old will be controlled, to the best of my ability, considering I will be searching the hard drive and we might be there for a while

So he won't be running amok then will he? Confused

Original poster
fridakahlo · 29/03/2012 23:49

I asked if I would be unreasonable to let him run amok, I didn't say that I would be letting him run amok.
Niceguy thanks for the good luck and yes, fair enough, it was a bending of the truth. It's not that I did not think it was important, just I am a scatterbrain Sad.

OP posts:
Petrean · 29/03/2012 23:49

Okay even if you 'have' to do the looking. You can still control your own toddler. Asking the man to waste 5 hours of his work time so you don't have to come in a day later with a toddler is unreasonable... Surely you can see that?

CleopatrasAsp · 30/03/2012 02:37

What reason did he give for the fact your laptop has been playing up? I don't want to alarm you but if there are problems with the hard drive then there's a chance that the file has been corrupted and that's why it hasn't been transferred across in the data back-up - that's if he did an automatic data back-up. Hopefully, this won't be the case - particularly as it sounds like he has just done a re-installation - but please, please back your stuff up regularly in future. My DH runs his own IT business and the amount of people we have in in tears and so stressed out as their hard drive is dying or has died and they haven't backed anything up for over a year etc. Quite often files can be retrieved but there are circumstances where you just can't get them back.

Original poster
fridakahlo · 30/03/2012 03:03

I have learnt my lesson, the crazy thing is, before we left for the states, I bought an external harddrive knowing that I would be getting a new laptop when we moved here.
I uploaded well over three thousand pictures onto it (compressed) and when it got to the other side, having been carried in my hand luggage, only three hundred files could be found. The rest had failed to upload for some reason.
So perhaps I should get another one and hope that my luck changes when it comes to loosing things, or just get utterly paranoid and save everything onto multiple devices.
Sigh.

OP posts:
squeakytoy · 30/03/2012 07:48

why not just check that you have copied stuff over before deleting it...

DogEared · 30/03/2012 07:49

YANBU

SoupDragon · 30/03/2012 07:54

Sorry, YABU to expect him to cancel 5 hours of work because you've not backed something up.

BalloonSlayer · 30/03/2012 07:55

Yanbu but as it was your "fault" for not backing up you could have offered him the day's pay.

dawntigga · 30/03/2012 09:52

YABU you should of backed up to a separate location if it was that important to you.

BacksUpIn3LocationsTiggaxx

niceguy2 · 30/03/2012 10:06

OP, most people including myself only learn when something like this happens. And I work in IT!

Having reformatted my own drive and mistakenly thinking I'd backed up my entire photo library only to find i hadn't and thought I'd possibly lost 5 years worth of photos was my arse dropping moment.

I now have all my photos stored on my server on mirrored drives which is copied daily to an Apple time capsule at the other side of the house, 1 copy on an encrypted disk I store in the back of the car and a very old copy in my neighbour's house which I CBA to get back.

Short of a nuclear disaster I think I'm pretty well covered now. In which case I probably have bigger things to worry about.

Swipe left for the next trending thread