Title: Data disasters - postcards from the edge

Q: Lost hard drive
A: In July 2012, a desperate student offered an $800 reward for the return of a hard drive stolen from her car. It contained the only copy of her thesis. Reward notices were posted throughout Fitzroy, Melbourne. This story was widely spread on social media at the time but we don’t know whether there was a happy ending.

Q: Happiness is the return of a stolen computer, with data intact
A: Never has a man been so happy to see a computer full of data spreadsheets. Claudio De Sassi's world fell apart when a car containing almost three years work towards his PhD was stolen. De Sassi, a Canterbury University academic, could not hide his joy as police reunited him with his stolen laptop and backpack.

Q: Google deleted an artist's blog, along with 14 years of his work
A: The artist's blog which Google deleted contained artwork, photos, and writing, and the only copy of the artist's latest GIF novel (a novel constructed entirely of animated GIFs.). Most of the artist’s work was only on his blog, with no other backups. His email account was also suspended.

Q: My EndNote library won’t open
A: Luckily the Thomson Reuters EndNote Support team was able to assist the student when his EndNote library wouldn't open. Think of the additional work required to rebuild a library of hundreds of references if the file was irretrievable, and there was no backup copy.

Q: Google suffers data loss as data centre is affected by lightning
A: The lightning which struck Google's data centre didn't strike the data centre directly but the four successive strikes did hit the local power grid. This caused the data centre to lose power temporarily.

Q: Stolen: "It's like half my brain has been removed"
A: Thieves stole a professor's laptop computer containing five years' work. It includes teaching notes, notes on her students, on research and human rights, and the book she had been working on.