Lost forever

Some background to this post, one of our computers has a strange habit of turning itself on at random intervals after it’s been put into sleep mode.

Sometimes it will be turned off in the evening, then in the morning it will be on and waiting for us; other times it will wake up late in the evening. It’s an issue that’s existed on that particular computer for at least a year, but we haven’t gotten around to looking into or fixing it.

Usually if this happens, we’ll just shut it down, so it doesn’t happen again. Other than that, it has never really been any kind of serious issue.

My Friday:

The computer went into sleep mode at 4pm.

No issues.

At around 6pm, the computer woke up.

We didn’t need the computer that evening, so I shut it down and thought nothing more of it.

My Saturday:

Step one - We turned on the computers.

Step two - The computer started up.

Step three - The computer looked VERY different…

The wallpaper had reverted back to the standard set up image. The desktop was completely clear of any apps. The taskbar looked depressingly empty.

All files were missing, and even the game engine we are using was gone entirely.

The worst thing was…. the updates and fixed bugs over the last few weeks had not been pushed into our version control. With no files, and no game engine at all, this meant that weeks of hard work and small tweaking was gone.

Not the entire game thankfully, but still, not even knowing at what state the game was last left in. What changes were lost, what we need to re-do.

Step four - This is the point at which my breakdown really hit.

Having a much more definite deadline now that the Game has its store page with a release date on Steam. Those few lost weeks were turning into a huge deal.

Step five - During my panic and trying to plan out our remaining time and tasks to re-do, we realized that for some reason, the computer decided to turn itself on using a completely different user that we have never touched before…

Step six - Logging out and logging back into the MAIN account… everything was fine. Wallpaper back to normal, apps where they should be, game progress…. intact!

Nothing lost.

Step seven - Just a gentle reminder from the tech Gods, to constantly save, have back ups and push any and all changes… I don’t think my heart can take that again!

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