Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

OMG - DD saved coursework for photography onto a memory stick and has discovered she's lost it - 5 days before her GCSE exam!

26 replies

toootired · 08/04/2016 11:25

There's always one, isn't there?

What a complete plonker.

I'm not being at all helpful - just muttering in disbelief.

There's nothing I can do, is there? She hasn't saved it anywhere else, apparently.

So unless she can find it, she'll need to redo 2 years' worth of photography in 4 days.

OP posts:
InternationalHouseofToast · 08/04/2016 11:28

lost it as in USB is corrupted or lost it as in dropped the USB on the bus?

Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 11:33

Lost it as in has no idea where it is - could be at school, could be in her (tip of a) room, currently being tidied, could be anywhere.

OP posts:
InternationalHouseofToast · 08/04/2016 11:55

I would spend today tidying and tomorrow contacting the school if anyone is there (our schools are still on holiday).

Have you double checked where she's looked - start where it's likely to be - does she have a folder of notes for this course, pockets in her school bag, how many coats has she worn to school - look in pockets, has she had a non-uniform day, what did she wear? Could it be on a keyring with her door key?

fingers crossed for her that it turns up.

Icouldbeknitting · 08/04/2016 11:59

If I said we'd never had the same panic I'd be a liar. Ours is usually an hour before a music performance and DS finds (suddenly!) that he has lost the memory stick with the accompaniment on it. Having been bitten with this more than once we now make a sneaky copy of the file just in case.

School bag? Possibly with a pocket that she "never" uses so didn't search in. Can she remember the last time she used it because that might give her a clue as to where it is.

Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 12:14

Idiot daughter has just found it. In her pencilcase.

Dh is now taking a copy onto the hard drive.

Hope this thread helps someone else.

Never, ever assume your 16-year-old dc has even a grain of commensense!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 12:15

Phew.

What a morning...

OP posts:
Northernlurker · 08/04/2016 12:18

Glad she found it! That will teach her to back up!

Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 12:47

Thank you all! Very relieved mother!!

OP posts:
TeddTess · 08/04/2016 13:03

my floppy disc (showing my age) corrupted mid way through my dissertation

i had no back up

didn't do that again!

had to start from scratch, actually think it probably made it better as more succinct(!) but never worked so hard for a few weeks as i did then.

back up back up back up !!

LetsEscape · 08/04/2016 14:50

Oh god - so glad it turned up.... I still shudder when I recall the panic when my original (and only) copy of my Uni dissertation was lost in post on its way to my friend who was typing it. I was too skint to photocopy it. I had to dictate it from my notes two days before deadline through the night. It was done and like TeddTess I think it was probably better. Nevertheless I now obsessively print a hard copy regularly for big pieces of work.

bojorojo · 08/04/2016 17:06

My DD did A level photography. I am amazed your DD has not had it drilled into her that work must be saved in more than one place! Or did she think she knew better? Dd saved on camera memory card and then on computer. A memory stick was the third in line. Never delete exam work from anywhere!

Hulababy · 08/04/2016 18:03

Glad she found it.

I did this for my A Level Computing - whole project on a floppy disk, but I only put it on one and forgot to do a second back up copy. This was way before the days of USBs, and no way to save it onto the school system at my school back them either - we are talking early 90s. Lost the whole thing at school, couple of weeks before the exams. Was a big %age of my grade too - meant I dropped more than half my marks, and pretty much failed the subject! Was also in a not great school at a time when people didn't really chase up issues - so no appealing, no covering letters, no teacher calling up exam boards, etc. Was just a silly mistake, my fault and my consequences!.

I never ever did anything like it again, thats for sure.

Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 18:08

I'm amazed, too, bojorojo! Like I said, clearly one should never underestimate the potential lack of sense of one's progeny!

When it happened, I'm ashamed to say that the thought crossing my mind was "this is like something that happens on MN, not in real life". And there we were.

DD is blessed in the brains department but somewhat lacking in the organisational ability department. An ivory tower with a flunkey to do the practical stuff would suit her fine. In the real world, she has no flunkey as I (most unreasonably) am not prepared to be one.

Still feeling very relieved. DD is full of joy, as only narrowly escaping from entirely self-inflicted disasters can make you!

OP posts:
Original poster
toootired · 08/04/2016 18:10

Shock Hulababy - that sounds dreadful.

Feeling very thankful dd is not in that position now.

OP posts:
BikeRunSki · 08/04/2016 18:12

Phew!

Back in the day of typewriters and hard copies (1992) my friend tool get undergraduate dissertation with her everywhere, until she dropped it on the wet floor of the swimming pool changing rooms.

OldBeanbagz · 08/04/2016 18:15

OMG, DD started GCSE Photography this year and her files are spread over 3 different computers. I doubt she has backed up any of them. Will make her do it now!

Coconutty · 08/04/2016 18:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 08/04/2016 18:19

Glad she found it. I was burgled a month before my dissertation was due in and they took my computer and my floppy disc back up was in the computer. I had to rewrite the whole thing.

CatchIt · 08/04/2016 18:30

OldBean, I'd get your dd to sign up to GoogleDrive (and anyone else who's DC have important work to do on computers!)

This way it can be accessed from anywhere (including a smart phone) and as long as the file is downloaded and then saved back onto GoogleDrive you'll always have the latest copy.

Adarajames · 09/04/2016 02:31

My teacher managed to lose some of my gcse English coursework, I was not happy and even less so when I got a lower mark because of it! She used to accuse me of having my father write my work as 'it is too good to have been produced by a child'; I often wondered if she lost it on purpose! Angry

daisychain01 · 09/04/2016 03:49

While the pain of that near loss is still fresh in her mind, please talk about the benefit of doing a security plan for her data. Save files with the version number and date in 2 separate places and keep a small note book with the details to be updated weekly. The message is more likely to hit home while she is still thinking Phew thank goodness I found it. Ask her to consider how many hours work she is prepared to lose, and that is the frequency she should save her work.

Glad it worked out well!

booklooker · 09/04/2016 04:11

My school has recently issued a message to all students notifying them that 'the compute ate it' type excuses are not valid, and that they should all be tech savvy enough to back up stuff onto an on-line platform.

I'm not sure I am quite there yet.

Original poster
toootired · 09/04/2016 13:16

OldBean - glad my thread was helpful! - if it helps prevent other dcs from potentially losing their coursework, then it was worth posting. :)

OP posts:
pointythings · 09/04/2016 16:44

I work in IT. My DDs save anything that is not a one-off on their local machine, on a USB stick and in the cloud. Paranoia rules.

HSMMaCM · 10/04/2016 15:22

DD emails essays to herself as she goes along so she never loses the whole thing. Her drama teacher lost a piece of final work last month and DD didn't have the final version, so she had to go back to the previous version and edit it. She wasn't happy that it was as good as the first time, but at least she didn't have to start from scratch.