As I started to write this blog posting, the theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies kept running through my head.

You know the song: Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed. A poor mountain man who barely kept his family fed… In my case, the song changes to: Come and listen to a story about a chick named Sherri, who’s own stupidity caused a massive loss of productivity…

Last Friday was going along like every other Friday. I’m trying to clean up the odds and ends of my work week, update some newsletter distribution lists and push the weekly newsletter out the door. Everything is going swimmingly until I go to open my beloved Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that is chock-full of communication program measurements, metrics, newsletter subscribers, community members, yadda, yadda, yadda… this is where the story begins.

Gone. My spreadsheet is gone. Completely and utterly. It’s not on my hard drive. It’s not on any of my jump drives. It’s not on my other computer. It’s just gone. Oh. My. God. The past ten months of my fiscal year life have disappeared and I am now in full panic mode.

In response to that first tweet, several kind people offered up advice on what I might do to recover the file. I tried a variety of methods; all of which completely failed. No file. Without this file, I can’t update my distribution lists. I can’t send out my newsletters. I will be unable to report any program metrics. In other words: My productivity just took a huge and almost irrecoverable crash. How could this be prevented? Two very simple steps:

1. Stop multitasking. Multitasking is what got me into this trouble in the first place. I was doing several different things at the same time and clearly deleted the wrong file off of my hard drive.

2. Backup my data. Anyone who knows me probably assumed that I was regularly backing up my data. My obsessive-compulsive organizational behavior would demand that I back up on a regular basis. Just goes to show that I’m still full of surprises. I hadn’t backed up my data in almost two years.

This saga of my missing file started at 9:57 AM on Friday, February 19, 2010 and continued until Tuesday, February 23, 2010. My computer guy tried everything. My peeps on Twitter tried to help. By Monday morning, I was resigned to the fact that I would never get my file back and the next several weeks would be spent recreating the data to the best of my ability.

Then karma kicked in. Not the type of karma that kicks you in the butt while you’re leaning over but the kind of karma that confirms that I must have been a good person in a previous life. An article in my morning news feed led me to an How-To Geek article about recovering files on Windows Vista. Dare I dream? Dare I let myself believe that the file might be recoverable? Call me a dreamer…

WOOT! 8:22 AM on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 my file is back and I’m back into my normal state of bliss.

Have I learned my lesson? In the words of Sarah Palin: “You betcha!” I am now backing up my files daily to a second hard drive AND I’m looking for a cloud backup solution. I can say that Mozy.com will probably get my money simply because several of my peeps recommended them and they are the only company that responded to my call for help on Twitter.

Was this a productivity buster? Yes, it was. From the time I realized that the file was missing on Friday morning to the time it got restored via ShadowExplorer my computer was out of commission – running scans and programs aimed at recovering the program – until Monday night. That’s three full days of business lost. That’s three days of not having access to my computer to check email, update web sites, do any work (personal, professional or otherwise) at all.

So, stop and think about the following:

  • What is the one file on your computer that you cannot live without? Is it backed up? Is it available in more than one location?
  • How long can you live without your computer?
  • How long will your clients go without you doing work for them?

The story ends well enough for me. I have my crucial file back and I wouldn’t give that up for all the black tea in Texas. I’m back to work with all of my computers working. But I’ll never get those three days back. Never.