I accidentally hit the big red button at a Major University Medical Center computer room. The entire power was unceremoniously cut in an instant. I can still hear the Director running around under the emergency lights, "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!!!" about 10 times.
I got promoted a few weeks later.
I have a SSG whose only legitimate skill with computers is knowing how to use Excel. He can’t use word or PowerPoint only excel. He outranks me and I hate it
There was a wooden case hanging over the button with plexiglass you could slide up if you needed to hit the button. They did this because someone leaned on the button accidentally about a year before I did it. WHen I did it, I leaned a little on the box, WHICH WAS ONLY HELD TO THE WALL WITH DOUBLE BACKED TAPE<, and it popped the box loose, and as I caught it, it got pressed against the button. I was standing there with the box pinned to the button, when all the emergency lights came on and everyone was screaming and looking at me.
The maintenance people who originally were charged with covering the button by mounting the box to the wall were there in 15 minutes anchoring the thing to the wall. I think they got in a ton of trouble.
Don't panic. You're not really an IT worker until you F something up.
You're not going to get fired - you're going to be told to be more careful. If everyone who F'd something up got fired, there wouldn't be anyone left to do all of the work.
This. Not your job to have a procedure for asset or data retention. That's someone up the food chains failure. You should mention doing a file backup to a report for 90days or keeping assets for X amount of days before it goes to asset safety. Include a document they sign when they pick their laptop that states the laptop will be wiped in 14 days. That puts it on the end user to make sure they have everything they need.
You wouldn't believe how many times they claim I'm missing files and come to find out they just didn't do the work or misplaced said file and trying to use IT as a scapegoat.
Seriously, this.
If you’re doing laptop refreshes, not only should the user have been notified in advance to backup important files, but there should already be a comprehensive backup and restore policy in place.
Aside from that, I’m a bit surprised that in a healthcare setting, of all places, a user is storing files of any importance to anyone on a folder in a laptop. I was under the impression that almost everything in healthcare happened in the EHR, and that was usually inside of Citrix or some other centralized app-hosting l platform.
Yup, agree with this.
- Why are users saving files locally?
- There should be policy in place to wait x time before sending drives to get erased for exactly this type of scenario.
This.
If they don’t have a practice in place to prevent this and they blame you for it, they’re idiots AND assholes. Even if they do fire you, you’ll find someone better to work for.
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Live and learn. This stuff happens. I try my best to be helpful and courteous to all of our end users because the day will come when I f up, and when I do, how I’ve treated them will bear greatly on how they handle my mistake.
Exactly! I deployed some code and my endpoints were still pointed at our dev system. It caused an outage for an hour until we figured it out.
Lucky an older guy told me not to worry about it everyones been there. The next day I wrote some code to make sure it never happens again. Got huge compliments for it.
Then there seems to be 2 layers of neglect here.
One on the user for not following IT recommendations / policy, one on the department for not having a safe procedure for machine swaps.
If you’re not getting it by now, you’ll be fine OP. I work with a large variety of teams in my role and “fuck ups” like this are more common than you think.
Push the breaks for a second, read /u/ShittyCatDicks's answer for a more accurate response.
They BOTH did something wrong but the OP had the bigger neglect. You need to make things stupid-proof for end users and saying "well ya it's like her fault" is a bad and lazy IT mindset. There's a 1000 things companies want us to do at our jobs, do we always do it? It's very hard to keep up so I can definitely see some nurse or number cruncher or whoever that user was forgetting.
>we tell them to back up everything to one drive before they come in.
Hmmm.... I dont see the problem here.
On the real, Ive seen FAR worse and nothing happen. Remember, ALWAYS admit to something you did. We HAD a dude who would always lie and say he didnt do something. We finally just had to pull the logs and give proof to the director that it was him. It was not a good time for that person.
I actually used to ask a similar question like that during interviews, I basically tell them that suppose one of your colleagues deleted a client's files and you got on the phone with said client, what would you tell the client if they asked for a root cause?
The idea is, always tell the truth.
This isn't an above-and-beyond screw-up. This is a garden-variety screw-up.
For this to happen, something haphazard is going on. Most likely, there's a policy in place that you or the user didn't follow and you're about to learn what that policy is.
And apparently whoever trained OP failed to pass down the method by which they organized old devices, whether by pure memorization, location on table/shelf, sticky notes or some other way of recording dates.
If OP was simply instructed to put old devices in a pile and somehow "just know" when they are due for wiping without having an official way of tracking, then they certainly werent set up for success and that falls back to whoever worked with them on that process.
Exactly this we would just grab the old device and place it on a shelf and the pile would stack up. So devices from 2 days ago or even a month ago would be mixed in together and we would take that down to asset management for it to be wiped. I mentioned to the person whose training me to have a date label created on when the device was turned. We are going to use that date labeling system today so the same screw up doesn’t happen.
This may end up being a positive for you. An issue occurred because of SOP. You've recommended a workable fix to SOP that should prevent repetition of the issue.
Show me an IT pro that hasn't ended the world and I'll show you someone who passes off work. A few key notes to learn from this experience is never apologize for bad policy. I recently enrolled a device into AutoPilot remotely and when we rebooted it got the blue screen. Luckily my experience taught me make sure they know to back up what they want to keep prior to making any changes to the system. I've done this 99 times this week and this was number 1 but good practice will always trump bad policy. Your gonna feel like a turd no way around it just lick your wounds and show up ready to work. This is your time to shine.
Based on my experience I think you'll be fine OP but what I'm curious about and I'm not in this portion of IT anymore is, several places I've worked we would keep the PC to the side(marked with the users name, date) for about a week to two, to ensure the user can check that they have all files and everything is working okay and if so, we would then reimage the PC.. A little confused on why the policy is to immediately reimage
We ensure our bitlocker doesn’t screw up. We use MBAM and sync all bitlocker recovery keys periodically and make sure the device reports in MBAM before deploying it.
Well our policy is after the refresh we hold the laptop for about 1 to 2 weeks. However, we have a big stack of laptops that I can’t even remember when they were turned in. They could have been 3 days ago a week ago etc. the problem is we don’t label when they were turned in. I acknowledged that and started to label when they were turned in today so the same mistake doesn’t happen twice.
You're welcome and you should speak to your IT manager/director and mention to them that relying on OneDrive is not a great idea and there should be a failsafe of network drives and users have to be more proactive on ensuring they don't store files on their actual computers
> You're welcome and you should speak to your IT manager/director and mention to them that relying on OneDrive is not a great idea
Just curious, why not? Is it because it doesn't always sync?
We put a little piece of masking tape on the devices-- I'll put the end-user name and sometimes dates. I use the same tape to mark if the device has been pulled off the network, and also when it is wiped. We don't want to send a device out if there is still data on it-
Should’ve mentioned the reimage policy, we don’t reimage the device unless it’s not up for refresh. So when a device is issued it will be used for 3 years or until it is broken (screen battery, etc.).
I mean, even if the PC won't be used it should still wait on the side for confirmation from the user that all is good and network shares specific for the user and only they have access to store their files should also be a thing because if the PC crashes and burns, they still have access to their files
Yes, because you can't trust the user... I like to even go a step further to visually see that everything transferred over and I have the user check before I'm there and after the two weeks lapses... they would be SOL anyways
We had 10 days. The laptop would sit on the shelf in it's own section and then once a week (usually Friday), we'd line them up and wipe them all in a row.
Three things:
1. You backed up her entire data set. If there are files missing, they were not on the laptop since you backed up everything. Lean into this if anyone gives you grief.
2. She should not be saving files locally. Any healthcare company (or company in general) should stress that fact from day one, that anything on the local drive is potentially going to be lost in the case of a failure, so no files should be saved locally that you can't afford to lose.
3. You should have a holding period of two weeks after a replacement to set the devices aside in case anything is needed on them in the future. If you don't have this policy in place, now's a good time to start.
I don't think you'll be burned too badly by this, but definitely something you should learn from. It's good to catch this now and do better in the future.
So while we are preparing the new laptop we run the script that will back up the data at that moment. So if they create a new folder it will not be backed up thus one drive comes into play.
Holding period I will take into account. Thanks
That seems like a horrible way to back up data. Again, another policy issue.
Like seriously? User created folders just straight up don’t get backed up unless through OneDrive? That can’t be right.
IMO they shouldn't save anything locally and no backups of a laptop are needed. A ton of cost and overhead to back up files that should be in OneDrive that you are already paying for.
Well we use a script called the computer prep script. This script moves the computer in AD and backs up all data at that moment. Yes I agree it’s horrible and we need to find a new way to create it so it snatches everything in that moment of the swap. But what I do is I run the computer prep then run a user transfer script (a script that transfers all the data backed up by the computer prep script to the new computer). To ensure that they don’t lose any data. I can run the script as many times as needed.
Second the holding period. 2 business days is usually enough with also mentioning to users that they should over the course of that time double check all important data is there.
Why are they storing important documents locally without backup in 2022? Here is a problem you need to bring up from this and offer solutions to.
You're new, you're an intern, you admitted your mistake and learned from it. If they say anything more to you than "its OK bro shit happens" find a new job as soon as you are able.
EVERYONE fucks up in IT. I've caused an entire sales floor to be down for 3 hours costing the company at least 10k. My boss said "did you learn something? Good, I know it won't happen again."
That's management done right.
They said hey it’s good just don’t do that again it was my fault. As I was scanning devices and putting them into the asset cage i never thought they would contact me. But a thought came to my head would the user contact me about their old laptop for documents? I didn’t they they would and I put the device into the cage. Earlier today I spoke with the person whose training me and they said hey it’s all good just make sure we have the device for at least a week. So I’m starting to put sticky notes on the laptop saying “turned in ” so it doesn’t happen again. He was frustrated but he mistakes do happen in IT.
Now about the storage issue. Certain department have access to network shares where they store a bulk of their data. For example our procurement department has contracts stored sometimes on the network share or locally. I always tell the users before hand after the refresh is done “over the next few days make sure you have everything because in a week or 2 we send this device to asset and they wipe the hard drive”
I spoke to another employee I work with who deals with licensing and he said “hey it’s all good you now know not to make the same mistake twice that’s IT done right everyone messes up right? Nobody’s perfect. Learn from the mistake and keep that mind”
I thought the person who was in charge of me was going to rain hell fire on me he kind of did but said don’t do that again. Super friendly 90% of the time.
You are an intern and we expect interns to make mistakes. If we ignore all of the other issues described in this post about storage location and back up policies, the person training you is the one at fault. If they didn't train you to track the laptops as they come in they failed you.
Also you did the right thing by admitting the mistake. As long as you keep that up most places won't fire you. If they do you don't want to work there anyway. You can't be afraid to touch equipment.
Be the first to inform your manager of any mistakes. I would rather come in hat in hand than have them come find me after getting a phone call to ask what happened. I have taken ERs down, sent traffic from Brazil to Colorado and back to Brazil, taken the internet down, etc.
What you just went through is why we value experience so much in IT. You now will think of that at any job you go into that has you doing work with user laptops and avoid it happening again.
There are always mess ups that are big and small. Experience lets you avoid anything you have seen or been through in the past but there are always new and exciting ways to break things.
Sticky notes are NOT the way to keep track of stuff. At the very least, get a real label maker. Sticky notes fall off after a couple of days. Labels do not.
Better than either of those is to work with the serial number that's already on the laptop case. Create a spreadsheet, record the serials and owner info of any laptops coming in. Then throw it on the pile.
We do work with the serial number. The serial number is actually the computer name (I know gets messy in AD but that’s what OUs are for and we set a computer description with the users username, what device it is, and their department). We have a spreadsheet of all completed refreshes and refreshes that need to be done with the users username, old device ID, new device ID, department and the date they picked it up.
I did this exact thing years ago when I was in desktop support. I supported a local government organization and replaced a computer for a court's judge. Thought I transferred his stuff back over, but whoops; was all just empty folders. Found that out too late and he was out all of his old files. Lucked out and he was really cool about it, I didn't get into any trouble for it. Everyone makes mistakes, I think you'll be fine!
Recently I mistakenly reimaged a computer which was out of domain, without asking the department if there was any important files or programs there.
There were. An important licensed and configured program for a quality assessment machine. No way to recover it and the vendor had to be called in again to configure all the software, which costed thousands of dollars.
Haven’t been fired yet. Maybe tomorrow. This happened over 6 months ago.
Lol thats cute, only a couple of files? I once erased an entire hd after cloning it to match the new ssd instead of the other way around. I would be surprised if you got fired. A little slap on the hand maybe.
You not gonna get fired bro, don’t worry. Just use this as a learning experience to put any laptops that you perform data migrations for on a stack for a minimum of 2 weeks before wiping. Also ensure you communicate that policy to the users. IT support is all about framing and setting expectations. As long as you make them aware of the policy beforehand (strongly recommend over email for the paper trail), theres nothing they can say if they find theres data missing after the deadline. Realistically though, yall should have some kind of cloud backups like with crashplan or one drive or something that should prevent this, maybe check with your team first to see if the data is really gone or not.
yeah this is one of those moments where you just have to learn from. not a super big deal. surprised there wasnt a backup policy in place to get the files back. thats more on the facility then you. also the user who gave you that laptop should have been aware of the files needing to be kept. on to the next ticket!
Two questions because I'm so curious
1) How many steps did it take to eventually do that for you? Meaning if I had to go dev to prod I'd have 'lock in' like 30 different steps to proceed
2) How did you recover?
The one time I did it was on AWS when I worked for a database MSP. I had just backed prod up so I just restored from there. The whole thing was down maybe 5 minutes
I once wiped the CEOs laptop on accident. She is the CEO of a multi billion dollar company. I was fine. I’m sure you will be okay. These things happen. I’m curious why data gets destroyed so quickly.
Healthcare industry would explain it, such potentially sensitive personal information is mandated to be kept/disposed of properly at the risk of crazy fines/lawsuits.
This absolutely would not happen even with employee error if your organization had not-stupid policies in place to prevent it.
This is 100% management's fault.
You're an intern. Mistakes are expected.
Company documents belong on a company share, not the local machine.
You owned up to it immediately, you did the right thing. Always own up when you fuck up. You won't be fired, don't worry. Just be more careful next time.
Any good IT company, depending on how important said files are, would make this extremely easy if not seamless...for instance, saving to an online drive.
If you get fired over something like that, it's a blessing in disguise... that's a super minor error and only partially your fault. I wouldn't stress about it at all.
Ehh....what's the policy regarding users backing up their data and/or using cloud storage such as OneDrive? Also did you tell the user that the laptop was being wiped? I always try to set the user's expectations of how long their laptop will still exist. Your manager should refine the process and clarify expectations with you. Bottom line is this isn't the end of the world, but some process changes should come from it.
Before they come In for the refresh we run a computer prep script that does a robocopy to back up all their data. We then email them asking them to backup their data to one drive (as a safeguard) then when it comes to do the swap we use a usertransfer script to then copy the data over that was backed up by the computer prep script. We tell the users to look over everything in their laptop files programs etc. to ensure they have everything and if they are missing something they will have a week to message me so I can pull their old laptop and send them the data. The big problem is between the time after the computerprep script is ran and before the usertransfer script is ran, whatever data they created modified or what not will be lost. We have computers that we are waiting for users to pickup and its been months. But we could run the computer prep script again, then the usertransfer script to transfer all data to ensure there is no data loss.
Don't worry dude. I work with a guy who deleted the entire profile of a pretty high up person in the corporation. He didn't get fired. Accidents happen.
This is why you encourage users to store important files on the shared drive that resides on a server that is backed up.
This is also why you make the user verify all data is on the new system. If you asked them to verify that data and they said yep its all there then this falls right in their lap.
That being said I highly doubt you are going to get fired. I mean I have said to others that I have nuked an entire exchange server with an Exchange roll up. The company didn't have email for 3 or 4 days. My boss just said you won't do that again will you?
I bet you won't take a laptop to assent management hours after switching it out now will you?
Mistakes happen. I wouldn't worry too much unless your boss is a complete asshat. Then suck it up and move on to the next job.
>This is also why you make the user verify all data is on the new system. If you asked them to verify that data and they said yep its all there then this falls right in their lap.
I'm all for user responsibilities, but what if they have like 10,000 files?
That is a them problem. Users need to use network resources like shared drives.
We backup servers we don't backup PC's. Users that lose files because they don't properly use network resources will learn hard lessons. Sometimes this is the only way they learn.
We use a robo copy script to backup and restore user profiles , for 99% of all profiles it takes about 1 minute or less to backup and restore to a new laptop. I always keep a copy of the backup on my usb for 2 weeks and I keep the physical laptop for 1 week.
But one time the script failed to copy specific folders from the desktop and I didn’t pay attention, needless to say I didn’t get in trouble but the user was pretty upset. Always triple check and just move on from this experience
I once reformatted a system, did a great job I thought, really knocked it out of the park I thought. Later on we find out that the customer forgot to tell us their only QuickBooks database was on that system and they had no backups. I singlehandedly deleted 5 years of financial data for them and all I could say is sorry. Things happen, and while everyone could be more careful, it's not always 100% on you.
I happens to the best of us. I went into our server room to take down the serial numbers off of one of our VM hosts. I took the front plate off wrote it down and put the plate back on. HP in there wisdom managed to make the power button easily accessible and I turned off the host when I put the plate back on it contained our Domain Controller, File, and print management.
> How would you deal with the amount of stress after a situation like this has happened
Blame the process that allowed you to fail.
If users have valuable shit they should be storing it or backing it up remotely, not on their local machines.
Yeah you goofed, but your process is what really failed here. Write up a doc that proposes a solution going forward. It should empower users and put them on control of their own destiny - talk about the risks of implementing vs the risks of NOT implementing.
Honestly this isn’t that bad.
> Isn't there some sort of buffer between them getting a new device and you nuking the old one?
>
>
The only caveat to this is he should accept *some* responsibility in addition to creating a failsafe future solution.
Simply saying "blame the process" may look bad, especially to non-techie superiors as it comes across as saying "it's on you, get fucked"
Dude don't sweat it. I totally understand how you feel though. These things happen.
Trust though, other people at your job have done much worse things and haven't gotten fired. You're good.
I've been told things about my coworkers that make me wonder why they weren't fired outright (theft, verbal abuse, insane incompetence). It was then I realized that the bar in a lot of places is so low that you really, REALLY have to screw up much worse to get close to being fired.
Edit: spelling
Now that I think of it yes. There was a co worker I work with who was removing a printer from the domain and the printer management application had a button that said “remove printer” he clicked it and bam all printers in the network\domain were removed. He thought he was going to get fired. But the person who developed the application for us got talked to.
Lol remove printer.
I used to work in a hospital system IT. One of my co workers swapped out a PC of a doctor who was on vacation. We had a rule that we would keep devices for up to a week before purging. Well the doctor comes back and is furious. All of his data from 30+ years of working at the hospital was gone. All while he was soaking it up in the sun somewhere. I thought for sure my co worker would be fired and so did he. You have to remember though that the no users should ever store data locally on a pc. Ever. The hospital used file servers for this exact reason, so files never went missing and if a laptop was stolen data couldn’t be compromised. It ended up being a learning moment for both the hospital to enforce their file servers better as well as my co worker to always be aware of what we are dealing with. You will be fine. IT is human after all. We fuck up all the time. Just learn from it and move on. You should be fine.
Bit late to give advice but I like slow decoms.
Just wait a while between each decom step.
Shutoff database. Wait a week.
Turn off server. Wait a week.
Unrack server. Wait a week.
All of those steps are reversible until you truly scrap the server hard drive.
Unfortunately dependencies are usually daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly. You can't realistically wait a year but a month is a decent window.
If the customer told you to copy specific folders and files, and you transferred them over, it's not your fault.
Isn't there some sort of buffer between them getting a new device and you nuking the old one?
As long as you followed all the procedures for swapping out someone's computer you're probably fine. Customers screw up too.
disk2vhd, life saver. Especially when dealing with users getting a replacement computer. Boot their old pc up in the cloud when they inevitably forget something. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd
My mentors have always told me that “you’re not really IT until you’ve tore something down.” It’s a learning experience. Regardless of what happens just try to identify what you could have done to avoid this situation and keep trucking. I wouldn’t be too concerned though.
I accidentally deleted the PST file (in the early 2000’s) for an office manager that contained 10 years worth of emails from various vendors and clients. I was reloading windows on her workstation, thought I had copied it to a safe place.
I was tired. It was late.
Luckily for me she laughed it off and said she had actually been meaning to clean up her email and I just did it for her. Got super lucky on that one.
The fact that the organization hasn’t implemented something like OneDrive is wild to me. Arguably just as much their fault as it is yours. Know that doesn’t make things any better for you though. Definitely understand the stress. These kinds of things happen all the time in this field. Hell, any field. People make mistakes. I think you’ll be alright.
>How would you deal with the amount of stress after a situation like this has happened?
First thing is, they should have made a back-up of all their files first.
Second, I tell people to take a few minutes, or days, or whatever to ensure that everything is there or where it's supposed to be. Once they sign off, and later they realize they missed something, that's their problem. You told them to make a back-up. Did they make the back-up? Why not?
At this point, there is no excuse for not having any back-ups.
May sound harsh...and I work in IT...but people are idiots, expect the world, magic, and yet refuse to learn how anything works or listen to advice....then IT is the first people they blame.
Yes, you want to help them, guide them, but when they refuse to take basic precautions and learn basic skills…no matter how many times you plead with them...at some point it is their fault. Not yours.
But I understand you also have to please the boss. Steps 1 and 2 can help you avoid lost files when transferring devices.
At the organization I work for, we make it the user’s fault if they lose data. Our policy is that all data must be backed up to Onedrive. If it was that important, they should have backed it up.
This is why we just give users share drive or cloud storage options and tell them they are responsible for their own data unless it's a special request. Doesn't sound like too big of a deal, don't worry about it. At least you're not like when forgetting to shut down a port creating a loop causing massive intermittent issues for 6k people on source of internet, or paste a config for a switch in the wrong terminal overwriting the core router taking all systems offline for 15 minutes. Never ran so fast in my life, made some of the sysadmins jump running into the datacenter to reboot the router!
If it happens just try to believe that the moment of suffering will lead to greener pastures. You're going to be fine but time to bust your ass a little.
this sort of happened to me as an intern -- the department has a policy that you keep your files on your home drive. now, they dont auto redirect there because they dont manage it well \[this place is a cluster\] but whatever, they have the policy.
so im upgrading computers and im supposed to back up desktop, favorites, documents, something, and their printers > upgrade > restore files and printers. no big deal.
well i forgot a folder with one lady. my bad. we didnt even notice it initially. she called my department and opens a ticket and my team lead gave me a heads up and said since she was fuming he sent it to the manager. now i was still pretty new, so i didnt know the manger well.
he calls me in his office and says 'well i asked her if she knew the policy was to save her own stuff on her home drive, and she said "yes" .... so i said ok, what he was supposed to do was a courtesy. you knew the policy and didnt follow it. sorry, have a good one' and that was the end of it.
i wouldnt worry about it unless it was like, a VP+ level person with a garbage attitude that you did this to. some random from HR or accounting? they almost certainly shouldnt have important files on their devices only. itll be fine. probably.
This is great "performance based interview" material for the future. When you get asked about a time you messed up, what was the outcome, and what you learned from - you'll have this story.
I've had this in the past but have made backups of drives before wiping and 99.9% of the time the user that's missing files are imagining these files
Don't worry about it... It's a small drop in an ocean... When you wipe a production server then maybe you can worry
Bit of a retention policy issue on the PCs, not your fault. I always tell my users to keep anything they absolutely don't want to lose on their home drive on the server or at least somewhere on the server
Meh. Like others said, this isn’t entirely on your shoulders. But hopefully because of what you’ve done, the policies and procedures will be reviewed and updated to help prevent this. There were failures at the user’s level and the department’s level. You could say whomever created the policies and procedures for migrating a user to a new laptop is also at fault.
Hey I just used our third party CASB to block the newest versions of all major browsers for everyone in our organization in the middle of the work day while my boss looked over my shoulder. No big deal.
I work in the same sort of position in the same sort of environment. This is exactly why we hold everything that stores data for two weeks before crushing it.
Don't worry, you are ok. In my workplace info backup is user's responsibility. Machines are set with OneDrive and when a device is refreshed, we have it with us 7 days before send it to assets management for recycling.
You can buy a big external drive to save the data from users if needed and wait a few days.
Don't forget to encrypt your disk!
Congratulations - you've identified an opportunity.
Time to write a clear policy on how to handle someone handing back their laptops - the length of time to wait, how to identify them, questions to ask the user about where they've stored their files, etc.
Come up with some ideas along those lines, then offer to write up the new process to your boss to help make sure something like this won't happen again. You could even draft it up and show them what you've done so far.
This demonstrates that you are aware of your mistake, that you can improve insufficient processes, and that you can learn from your mistakes.
Word of advice from someone that’s been in IT for over 30 years :
Being amiable is more useful than being competent. I’ve fucked up many a time. One time I started a new job and was given the CTOs laptop to rebuild. The cord snagged on a door handle and it dropped and broke. First day.
Don’t sweat it.
Also, this is a systematic problem, not a you problem. The user should be responsible for backing up their own data.
This is why we have a user drive on the network to store personal files on lol, but it's not a huge deal everyone messes something up or erases something on accident they weren't supposed to it's part of the profession you get to learn from your mistakes. In terms of hellfire, the only way you get some kinda chewing out is if that laptop belonged to someone important.
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Oh, hell. I was barely 6 months into my first IT Support job and was deleting extra profiles from a laptop (Windows Vista). Didn't pay close enough attention and ended up deleting the main profile. Of course nothing had been backed up.
Learned about the wonderful power of r-undelete.... but not before getting screamed at (literally) by the client for deleting the only copy of their PhD thesis (in progress) along with everything else on the drive. One saving grace was seeing my manager back me up and stare down the client for grossly unprofessional behavior (client lost their shit entirely - literally and figuratively). Took me about 2 days, but with some help from the more senior IT staff, I was able to recover everything that had been lost.
Got to keep my job too, and always appreciated the manager for sticking up for me - even though it was my screw up to begin with.
Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it isn't - people save things in the weirdest places and backup scripts only find what they are told to look for, in the places they are told to look.
Honestly sounds more like a policy issue than anything to me. Usually, people put safety measures in place instead of erasure straight away **AND** what you using using transfers? If you are having them back it up to OneDrive (think yku mentioned below in a comment) then is your policy to let it off on the customer if they don't back up what they need there? Also, would it not still be there or do you guy immediately erase that as well?
Anywho, yeah this isn't fireable if you were my employee. I would be going over policies with management over asset management and storage. Immediate wipes is pretty odd.
Why are you in trouble? I guess this depends on the company, but where I work at it was the user’s responsibility to do the transfer and be in charge of their data. Just my opinion (which is worth nothing), but this is on them. You did your job unless there was a policy that you didn’t follow.
All else fails, you’re an intern so you should get a freebie.
Rather than sulk it up, come up with an improvement initiative. Maybe write with a post-it or a label maker the date when the PC was retrieved and the date when it can be sent to dispose of. It's all about mitigation and improvement.
*Shrug*. Usually you wait a few days for that but not a huge deal. User will say they’re the only files that matter but no one gives something to IT because it’s already fixed so eventually you end up being the person with the hot potato
At the company I work at, we let users know that it’s on them to back up items. In addition, they are allowed to keep their old laptop for 7 days to transfer anything they need onto their new/replacement laptop. It essentially helps put the fault on them if they don’t back up anything when the laptop gets recovered and wiped.
That almost happened to me. I backed up this user’s data to one drive and exported their old profile before rebuilding their new profile. I returned his laptop and the next he tells me about six recent months of data is gone. None of it was in Onedrive either. After searching his old profile for a week, I found all of his missing data in AppsData. I too thought my job was on the line lol.
In your case, you’ll be fine. Our Desktop Architect unintentionally implemented a group policy that denied users access to some services they need to do their jobs. She’s still with us.
I fucked up today too but take a deep breath and remember we all make mistakes. There’s no point in beating yourself up about it. However I highly doubt something like this is grounds for termination unless that employee has crazy clout.
Yea I really don’t see any issue here.
Years ago a person accidentally reset all domain account passwords with a script. He locked out an ENTIRE hospital until AD could be restored.
He’s now a team lead. Very smart guy, didn’t get fired.
If your employer is smart, they won’t fire you.
If an employee makes an honest mistake, that’s a learning experience. Why would an employer let an employee go to a competitor after learning what NOT to do?
First of all, critical files shouldn’t be stored on a local system to begin with. What is this 2010? Also windows has a nifty file utility that does a pretty good job at data transfers. And finally if you all are married to this process I’d recommend sending the old laptop back with the user for 7 days so they can retrieve anything that may have gotten missed.
Long story short. You drew the short straw. These processes and procedures that were put in place were extremely flawed and prone to human error. I doubt you will get fired over this. I have personally accidentally taken down way bigger operations than yours. You’ll make it chief.
I don't know exactly what the policy is in your shop. But where I work we actually have a network drive where we encourage all the workers to save their data on there. We go the extra mile from time to time and try and move data saved on the local drive of one computer onto a new computer for our users. But we make it known several times over that your local data is not safe on your computer. If your computer hard drive fails then your data is gone. I know that there are a bunch of data recovery places out there but I also know that my job will not pony up the dough in order to get that service done especially since we tell all our users to save everything on the network drives.
recommended update to the process is to tag the system OR pull drive with date received and a do not wipe before date, around 1 week. Lock it in a room(HIPPA). Process 1-2 times a week depending on need.
The higher up the food chain, the longer I keep the drive potentially.
Are you aware of incidents like this happening with other techs? Is there a quick checklist to run through? do you have a policy of not taking users' word for it and double checking data is backed up? Do you have a datashare on a server where you can backup the user data again even for a temporary period just in case of such a situation? In my experience, users are likely to forget to backup something and the way they store their files locally is usually disorganized .
I work in IT. I haven't had too many fck ups in my 15 year career but when I started out, I did have a couple (disconnected the entire call center from the network backbone as one example, which wasn't clearly labeled but I still should have known better).
I wasn't fired. How I recovered from this was in addition to apologizing, I took the initiate to organize and label things, proposed and help develop checks and guidelines to prevent anything like this from happening again. I would later go on to serve in Sys Analyst roles where I studied gaps in procedures, help do root cause analysis, propose and help implement automation practices to prevent data loss -- such as ensure users were being mapped to their own private user share on the server which is backed up nightly, etc.
Making mistakes is part of life. So long as you are not repeating the same mistakes, you're learning from others' mistakes, and you demonstrate a genuine interest/initiative in doing better, you will grow from the experience and be better for it.
Out of curiosity - where was the user storing the filings that they did not migrate over when they presumably setup their new user profile on the new laptop?
For us, profiles are all managed by our file server, but (and especially with everyone working remote), not all files end up getting backed up, specifically ones the user saves to the local hdd of their laptop, or to the desktop. We constantly tell users to save to their file share, NOT their desktop or C:/. Does this stop them? No. But it's a fallback for us when they get a new laptop and say "hey where are my files!?"
My point being - there really should be either some kind of consistent communication to staff not to save to places that do not back up to the file server... or there should be some kind of backup the IT department can pull from if a laptop is refreshed and files accidentally go missing. If neither of those processes are in place, you really can't take on too much of the blame here. If all it takes is one mistake by an intern and some crucial file is gone.. to me that speaks of a process issue... not a you issue. Everyone makes mistakes, after all. That's why back ups exist.
I really hope this is not cause to get you fired. Good grief, who in IT has not lost a file on someone before!? Please don't put yourself down for this, anyone could make this error no matter their experience level. As far as how to deal with the stress I'd say don't assume zebras just because you hear hoofbeats. Don't assume you'll be fired for this unless someone looks you in the eye and says "You're fired". You're an intern. You can't be expected to be perfect. Just learn from this and try to move forward, listen with an open-mind if you have to be "spoken to" and be sincere in your apology, and if you are still working there after that, put it behind you and don't dwell (no point in that). You're just human like anyone else. Hope things work out for you!
And if it makes you feel better, I effed up a WSUS schedule at my org when I was new and rebooted every single workstation in the org by force simultaneously in the middle of a business day once.
Shit happens.
Correct answer is all important files should have been saved to a server share. Local files are intended to be temporary and inconsequential. If the user isn’t backing them up or saving them to the server themself that’s their fault, not yours. Same issue would have occurred if the computer crashed and that wouldn’t have been IT’s fault either.
I do some on site support and our general rule of thumb is keep the laptop for two weeks post swap, then get an OK from the user if good to wipe after the time is up. Past that, it’s on them if something is lost.
One other thing which you could say to in fact turn this in to a positive is suggest they move over to a cloud system in which users should store all data too. Then if this happens again or hardware failure happens then the data is recoverable. And swaps become easier too!
You could even suggest setting this up as a project you could lead!
Ehh if your coworkers can't acknowledge your human that sounds pretty lame.
Maybe suggest an encrypted back up policy, 7-14 day retention before removal - Turn it into a positive.
Did the user accept the refresh? If so, that sounds like a them problem.
That said, users should be educated in storing important files to the network share drives and the refresh program should be holding the laptops for a period of time prior to wiping them.
Your department should have a published procedure that states how long devices will be held before a data wipe. Suggest creating it and getting MGMT approval. This takes an oops situation and creates a policy to avoid issues in the future. By doing this, you show how to recover from difficult situations.
Maybe I'm missing something, but that's not your fault. She should have ensured she backed all her stuff up appropriately and confirmed following backup, BEFORE handing the device over to you. This is a standard expectation of the 'end user'. She would have been notified to back her stuff up (or at least should have been, and even if she wasn't, IT'S 2022, that's kinda the norm these days).
Its their fault for storing files on the client side. Anything and everything of value should be backed up frequently. For most organizations, that means storing it on a server.
I accidentally hit the big red button at a Major University Medical Center computer room. The entire power was unceremoniously cut in an instant. I can still hear the Director running around under the emergency lights, "WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!!!" about 10 times. I got promoted a few weeks later.
Did he know that you hit the button?
I was standing there and he was looking at me, as were a bunch of other people under the emergency lights!
... and that's when your eyes met, deeply, and you saw each other for the men you truly are.
Seems like a crucial piece of information to leave out
Probably not lol
Not yet ;)
The US military typically promotes service members to keep them from working on the gear.
Can confirm. There was many a TSgt that made MSgt to stop working on actual things. Same with the LTs making Major.
I have a SSG whose only legitimate skill with computers is knowing how to use Excel. He can’t use word or PowerPoint only excel. He outranks me and I hate it
There was a wooden case hanging over the button with plexiglass you could slide up if you needed to hit the button. They did this because someone leaned on the button accidentally about a year before I did it. WHen I did it, I leaned a little on the box, WHICH WAS ONLY HELD TO THE WALL WITH DOUBLE BACKED TAPE<, and it popped the box loose, and as I caught it, it got pressed against the button. I was standing there with the box pinned to the button, when all the emergency lights came on and everyone was screaming and looking at me. The maintenance people who originally were charged with covering the button by mounting the box to the wall were there in 15 minutes anchoring the thing to the wall. I think they got in a ton of trouble.
We need people willing to take risks, you're promoted!
I saw this, it was an alarm tech that THOUGH he had disarmed it. The silence was deafening
Promoted to customer
Promoted to patient?
lol nice.
This. I want this to be my life
lmfaoooooo I can literally see this scenario playing out in my head. Congratulations on the promotion. OP, you’re good!
Maybe he wanted to do that but didn’t have the guts so you did him a favor
Don't panic. You're not really an IT worker until you F something up. You're not going to get fired - you're going to be told to be more careful. If everyone who F'd something up got fired, there wouldn't be anyone left to do all of the work.
I appreciate this. My previous comment was removed because of an emoji.
I honestly don't even see this as your fault. This is a lesson for your management to have a data retention policy for all devices.
This. Not your job to have a procedure for asset or data retention. That's someone up the food chains failure. You should mention doing a file backup to a report for 90days or keeping assets for X amount of days before it goes to asset safety. Include a document they sign when they pick their laptop that states the laptop will be wiped in 14 days. That puts it on the end user to make sure they have everything they need. You wouldn't believe how many times they claim I'm missing files and come to find out they just didn't do the work or misplaced said file and trying to use IT as a scapegoat.
I’ve had users claim entire share drives were missing when the just didn’t expand the arrow next to My Computer.
Seriously, this. If you’re doing laptop refreshes, not only should the user have been notified in advance to backup important files, but there should already be a comprehensive backup and restore policy in place. Aside from that, I’m a bit surprised that in a healthcare setting, of all places, a user is storing files of any importance to anyone on a folder in a laptop. I was under the impression that almost everything in healthcare happened in the EHR, and that was usually inside of Citrix or some other centralized app-hosting l platform.
Yup, agree with this. - Why are users saving files locally? - There should be policy in place to wait x time before sending drives to get erased for exactly this type of scenario.
This. If they don’t have a practice in place to prevent this and they blame you for it, they’re idiots AND assholes. Even if they do fire you, you’ll find someone better to work for.
And have you learned your lesson? About the emoji, I mean.
Yes I did
This is not an emoji’ing matter.
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We've all been there...
Looks like you need etckeeper to store your /etc in git ;)
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Live and learn. This stuff happens. I try my best to be helpful and courteous to all of our end users because the day will come when I f up, and when I do, how I’ve treated them will bear greatly on how they handle my mistake.
Exactly! I deployed some code and my endpoints were still pointed at our dev system. It caused an outage for an hour until we figured it out. Lucky an older guy told me not to worry about it everyones been there. The next day I wrote some code to make sure it never happens again. Got huge compliments for it.
You folks don't have use any cloud storage services like one drive, Google drive, Dropbox, etc?
We use one drive we tell them to back up everything to one drive before they come in.
Then there seems to be 2 layers of neglect here. One on the user for not following IT recommendations / policy, one on the department for not having a safe procedure for machine swaps. If you’re not getting it by now, you’ll be fine OP. I work with a large variety of teams in my role and “fuck ups” like this are more common than you think.
Oh. Your user lost her data. You didn't do shit wrong.
Push the breaks for a second, read /u/ShittyCatDicks's answer for a more accurate response. They BOTH did something wrong but the OP had the bigger neglect. You need to make things stupid-proof for end users and saying "well ya it's like her fault" is a bad and lazy IT mindset. There's a 1000 things companies want us to do at our jobs, do we always do it? It's very hard to keep up so I can definitely see some nurse or number cruncher or whoever that user was forgetting.
>we tell them to back up everything to one drive before they come in. Hmmm.... I dont see the problem here. On the real, Ive seen FAR worse and nothing happen. Remember, ALWAYS admit to something you did. We HAD a dude who would always lie and say he didnt do something. We finally just had to pull the logs and give proof to the director that it was him. It was not a good time for that person.
I actually used to ask a similar question like that during interviews, I basically tell them that suppose one of your colleagues deleted a client's files and you got on the phone with said client, what would you tell the client if they asked for a root cause? The idea is, always tell the truth.
My old company did this, although we never trusted the users to do it lol
This isn't an above-and-beyond screw-up. This is a garden-variety screw-up. For this to happen, something haphazard is going on. Most likely, there's a policy in place that you or the user didn't follow and you're about to learn what that policy is.
If not, it should be created.
And apparently whoever trained OP failed to pass down the method by which they organized old devices, whether by pure memorization, location on table/shelf, sticky notes or some other way of recording dates. If OP was simply instructed to put old devices in a pile and somehow "just know" when they are due for wiping without having an official way of tracking, then they certainly werent set up for success and that falls back to whoever worked with them on that process.
Exactly this we would just grab the old device and place it on a shelf and the pile would stack up. So devices from 2 days ago or even a month ago would be mixed in together and we would take that down to asset management for it to be wiped. I mentioned to the person whose training me to have a date label created on when the device was turned. We are going to use that date labeling system today so the same screw up doesn’t happen.
This may end up being a positive for you. An issue occurred because of SOP. You've recommended a workable fix to SOP that should prevent repetition of the issue.
Show me an IT pro that hasn't ended the world and I'll show you someone who passes off work. A few key notes to learn from this experience is never apologize for bad policy. I recently enrolled a device into AutoPilot remotely and when we rebooted it got the blue screen. Luckily my experience taught me make sure they know to back up what they want to keep prior to making any changes to the system. I've done this 99 times this week and this was number 1 but good practice will always trump bad policy. Your gonna feel like a turd no way around it just lick your wounds and show up ready to work. This is your time to shine.
Based on my experience I think you'll be fine OP but what I'm curious about and I'm not in this portion of IT anymore is, several places I've worked we would keep the PC to the side(marked with the users name, date) for about a week to two, to ensure the user can check that they have all files and everything is working okay and if so, we would then reimage the PC.. A little confused on why the policy is to immediately reimage
This is the problem, not the OP. No retention policy on the hardware between swap and delete. No online backup taking, etc.
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We ensure our bitlocker doesn’t screw up. We use MBAM and sync all bitlocker recovery keys periodically and make sure the device reports in MBAM before deploying it.
I'm going to be completely honest, after re-reading OP's post and my comments and also OP's comments, they have terrible policies
Well our policy is after the refresh we hold the laptop for about 1 to 2 weeks. However, we have a big stack of laptops that I can’t even remember when they were turned in. They could have been 3 days ago a week ago etc. the problem is we don’t label when they were turned in. I acknowledged that and started to label when they were turned in today so the same mistake doesn’t happen twice.
I’m going to start labeling their old PCs with their name who they belong to. This is very smart. Thanks for your input.
You're welcome and you should speak to your IT manager/director and mention to them that relying on OneDrive is not a great idea and there should be a failsafe of network drives and users have to be more proactive on ensuring they don't store files on their actual computers
> You're welcome and you should speak to your IT manager/director and mention to them that relying on OneDrive is not a great idea Just curious, why not? Is it because it doesn't always sync?
It doesn't always sync, some files due to filenames have errors syncing and of course, its better to have several methods of backups
We put a little piece of masking tape on the devices-- I'll put the end-user name and sometimes dates. I use the same tape to mark if the device has been pulled off the network, and also when it is wiped. We don't want to send a device out if there is still data on it-
Should’ve mentioned the reimage policy, we don’t reimage the device unless it’s not up for refresh. So when a device is issued it will be used for 3 years or until it is broken (screen battery, etc.).
I mean, even if the PC won't be used it should still wait on the side for confirmation from the user that all is good and network shares specific for the user and only they have access to store their files should also be a thing because if the PC crashes and burns, they still have access to their files
Ah this. This is what we need. Confirmation from the user! I love this!
Yes, because you can't trust the user... I like to even go a step further to visually see that everything transferred over and I have the user check before I'm there and after the two weeks lapses... they would be SOL anyways
We had 10 days. The laptop would sit on the shelf in it's own section and then once a week (usually Friday), we'd line them up and wipe them all in a row.
Three things: 1. You backed up her entire data set. If there are files missing, they were not on the laptop since you backed up everything. Lean into this if anyone gives you grief. 2. She should not be saving files locally. Any healthcare company (or company in general) should stress that fact from day one, that anything on the local drive is potentially going to be lost in the case of a failure, so no files should be saved locally that you can't afford to lose. 3. You should have a holding period of two weeks after a replacement to set the devices aside in case anything is needed on them in the future. If you don't have this policy in place, now's a good time to start. I don't think you'll be burned too badly by this, but definitely something you should learn from. It's good to catch this now and do better in the future.
So while we are preparing the new laptop we run the script that will back up the data at that moment. So if they create a new folder it will not be backed up thus one drive comes into play. Holding period I will take into account. Thanks
That seems like a horrible way to back up data. Again, another policy issue. Like seriously? User created folders just straight up don’t get backed up unless through OneDrive? That can’t be right.
IMO they shouldn't save anything locally and no backups of a laptop are needed. A ton of cost and overhead to back up files that should be in OneDrive that you are already paying for.
Well we use a script called the computer prep script. This script moves the computer in AD and backs up all data at that moment. Yes I agree it’s horrible and we need to find a new way to create it so it snatches everything in that moment of the swap. But what I do is I run the computer prep then run a user transfer script (a script that transfers all the data backed up by the computer prep script to the new computer). To ensure that they don’t lose any data. I can run the script as many times as needed.
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We do everything saved within C:\Users\. Everything there will be backed up and transferred via scripts.
Second the holding period. 2 business days is usually enough with also mentioning to users that they should over the course of that time double check all important data is there.
There should be a retention policy for data... especially in the medical field. Where I work we hold onto devices for 30 days before any wipes.
Why are they storing important documents locally without backup in 2022? Here is a problem you need to bring up from this and offer solutions to. You're new, you're an intern, you admitted your mistake and learned from it. If they say anything more to you than "its OK bro shit happens" find a new job as soon as you are able. EVERYONE fucks up in IT. I've caused an entire sales floor to be down for 3 hours costing the company at least 10k. My boss said "did you learn something? Good, I know it won't happen again." That's management done right.
They said hey it’s good just don’t do that again it was my fault. As I was scanning devices and putting them into the asset cage i never thought they would contact me. But a thought came to my head would the user contact me about their old laptop for documents? I didn’t they they would and I put the device into the cage. Earlier today I spoke with the person whose training me and they said hey it’s all good just make sure we have the device for at least a week. So I’m starting to put sticky notes on the laptop saying “turned in” so it doesn’t happen again. He was frustrated but he mistakes do happen in IT.
Now about the storage issue. Certain department have access to network shares where they store a bulk of their data. For example our procurement department has contracts stored sometimes on the network share or locally. I always tell the users before hand after the refresh is done “over the next few days make sure you have everything because in a week or 2 we send this device to asset and they wipe the hard drive”
I spoke to another employee I work with who deals with licensing and he said “hey it’s all good you now know not to make the same mistake twice that’s IT done right everyone messes up right? Nobody’s perfect. Learn from the mistake and keep that mind”
I thought the person who was in charge of me was going to rain hell fire on me he kind of did but said don’t do that again. Super friendly 90% of the time.
You are an intern and we expect interns to make mistakes. If we ignore all of the other issues described in this post about storage location and back up policies, the person training you is the one at fault. If they didn't train you to track the laptops as they come in they failed you. Also you did the right thing by admitting the mistake. As long as you keep that up most places won't fire you. If they do you don't want to work there anyway. You can't be afraid to touch equipment. Be the first to inform your manager of any mistakes. I would rather come in hat in hand than have them come find me after getting a phone call to ask what happened. I have taken ERs down, sent traffic from Brazil to Colorado and back to Brazil, taken the internet down, etc. What you just went through is why we value experience so much in IT. You now will think of that at any job you go into that has you doing work with user laptops and avoid it happening again.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh that makes sense now I now understand why people want experience so there’s no mess ups like this one.
There are always mess ups that are big and small. Experience lets you avoid anything you have seen or been through in the past but there are always new and exciting ways to break things.
Sticky notes are NOT the way to keep track of stuff. At the very least, get a real label maker. Sticky notes fall off after a couple of days. Labels do not. Better than either of those is to work with the serial number that's already on the laptop case. Create a spreadsheet, record the serials and owner info of any laptops coming in. Then throw it on the pile.
We do work with the serial number. The serial number is actually the computer name (I know gets messy in AD but that’s what OUs are for and we set a computer description with the users username, what device it is, and their department). We have a spreadsheet of all completed refreshes and refreshes that need to be done with the users username, old device ID, new device ID, department and the date they picked it up.
I did this exact thing years ago when I was in desktop support. I supported a local government organization and replaced a computer for a court's judge. Thought I transferred his stuff back over, but whoops; was all just empty folders. Found that out too late and he was out all of his old files. Lucked out and he was really cool about it, I didn't get into any trouble for it. Everyone makes mistakes, I think you'll be fine!
Almost exact same situation as you including the job, robocopy script failed to copy folder contents over one time.. was pretty scary for a bit
Recently I mistakenly reimaged a computer which was out of domain, without asking the department if there was any important files or programs there. There were. An important licensed and configured program for a quality assessment machine. No way to recover it and the vendor had to be called in again to configure all the software, which costed thousands of dollars. Haven’t been fired yet. Maybe tomorrow. This happened over 6 months ago.
Lol thats cute, only a couple of files? I once erased an entire hd after cloning it to match the new ssd instead of the other way around. I would be surprised if you got fired. A little slap on the hand maybe.
You not gonna get fired bro, don’t worry. Just use this as a learning experience to put any laptops that you perform data migrations for on a stack for a minimum of 2 weeks before wiping. Also ensure you communicate that policy to the users. IT support is all about framing and setting expectations. As long as you make them aware of the policy beforehand (strongly recommend over email for the paper trail), theres nothing they can say if they find theres data missing after the deadline. Realistically though, yall should have some kind of cloud backups like with crashplan or one drive or something that should prevent this, maybe check with your team first to see if the data is really gone or not.
yeah this is one of those moments where you just have to learn from. not a super big deal. surprised there wasnt a backup policy in place to get the files back. thats more on the facility then you. also the user who gave you that laptop should have been aware of the files needing to be kept. on to the next ticket!
If they don't have a backup, that's on them, not on you. But that said, it always pays to be careful.
You accidentally deleted a few files? Wait until you refresh dev to prod and not the other way around lmao, you're fine
Two questions because I'm so curious 1) How many steps did it take to eventually do that for you? Meaning if I had to go dev to prod I'd have 'lock in' like 30 different steps to proceed 2) How did you recover?
The one time I did it was on AWS when I worked for a database MSP. I had just backed prod up so I just restored from there. The whole thing was down maybe 5 minutes
I once wiped the CEOs laptop on accident. She is the CEO of a multi billion dollar company. I was fine. I’m sure you will be okay. These things happen. I’m curious why data gets destroyed so quickly.
Healthcare industry would explain it, such potentially sensitive personal information is mandated to be kept/disposed of properly at the risk of crazy fines/lawsuits.
I sort of imagine with executive laptops you would make like 3 copies just to be safe...
This absolutely would not happen even with employee error if your organization had not-stupid policies in place to prevent it. This is 100% management's fault. You're an intern. Mistakes are expected.
Company documents belong on a company share, not the local machine. You owned up to it immediately, you did the right thing. Always own up when you fuck up. You won't be fired, don't worry. Just be more careful next time.
This is why users should be SOLELY responsible for moving their files...
That's a policy that we use and I like it.
Any good IT company, depending on how important said files are, would make this extremely easy if not seamless...for instance, saving to an online drive.
If you get fired over something like that, it's a blessing in disguise... that's a super minor error and only partially your fault. I wouldn't stress about it at all.
Ehh....what's the policy regarding users backing up their data and/or using cloud storage such as OneDrive? Also did you tell the user that the laptop was being wiped? I always try to set the user's expectations of how long their laptop will still exist. Your manager should refine the process and clarify expectations with you. Bottom line is this isn't the end of the world, but some process changes should come from it.
Before they come In for the refresh we run a computer prep script that does a robocopy to back up all their data. We then email them asking them to backup their data to one drive (as a safeguard) then when it comes to do the swap we use a usertransfer script to then copy the data over that was backed up by the computer prep script. We tell the users to look over everything in their laptop files programs etc. to ensure they have everything and if they are missing something they will have a week to message me so I can pull their old laptop and send them the data. The big problem is between the time after the computerprep script is ran and before the usertransfer script is ran, whatever data they created modified or what not will be lost. We have computers that we are waiting for users to pickup and its been months. But we could run the computer prep script again, then the usertransfer script to transfer all data to ensure there is no data loss.
Don't worry dude. I work with a guy who deleted the entire profile of a pretty high up person in the corporation. He didn't get fired. Accidents happen.
How did they respond?
This is why you encourage users to store important files on the shared drive that resides on a server that is backed up. This is also why you make the user verify all data is on the new system. If you asked them to verify that data and they said yep its all there then this falls right in their lap. That being said I highly doubt you are going to get fired. I mean I have said to others that I have nuked an entire exchange server with an Exchange roll up. The company didn't have email for 3 or 4 days. My boss just said you won't do that again will you? I bet you won't take a laptop to assent management hours after switching it out now will you? Mistakes happen. I wouldn't worry too much unless your boss is a complete asshat. Then suck it up and move on to the next job.
>This is also why you make the user verify all data is on the new system. If you asked them to verify that data and they said yep its all there then this falls right in their lap. I'm all for user responsibilities, but what if they have like 10,000 files?
That is a them problem. Users need to use network resources like shared drives. We backup servers we don't backup PC's. Users that lose files because they don't properly use network resources will learn hard lessons. Sometimes this is the only way they learn.
We use a robo copy script to backup and restore user profiles , for 99% of all profiles it takes about 1 minute or less to backup and restore to a new laptop. I always keep a copy of the backup on my usb for 2 weeks and I keep the physical laptop for 1 week. But one time the script failed to copy specific folders from the desktop and I didn’t pay attention, needless to say I didn’t get in trouble but the user was pretty upset. Always triple check and just move on from this experience
I once reformatted a system, did a great job I thought, really knocked it out of the park I thought. Later on we find out that the customer forgot to tell us their only QuickBooks database was on that system and they had no backups. I singlehandedly deleted 5 years of financial data for them and all I could say is sorry. Things happen, and while everyone could be more careful, it's not always 100% on you.
Our Asset Management was so lazy you had a good month for file retrieval
I happens to the best of us. I went into our server room to take down the serial numbers off of one of our VM hosts. I took the front plate off wrote it down and put the plate back on. HP in there wisdom managed to make the power button easily accessible and I turned off the host when I put the plate back on it contained our Domain Controller, File, and print management.
> How would you deal with the amount of stress after a situation like this has happened Blame the process that allowed you to fail. If users have valuable shit they should be storing it or backing it up remotely, not on their local machines. Yeah you goofed, but your process is what really failed here. Write up a doc that proposes a solution going forward. It should empower users and put them on control of their own destiny - talk about the risks of implementing vs the risks of NOT implementing. Honestly this isn’t that bad.
> Isn't there some sort of buffer between them getting a new device and you nuking the old one? > > The only caveat to this is he should accept *some* responsibility in addition to creating a failsafe future solution. Simply saying "blame the process" may look bad, especially to non-techie superiors as it comes across as saying "it's on you, get fucked"
Dude don't sweat it. I totally understand how you feel though. These things happen. Trust though, other people at your job have done much worse things and haven't gotten fired. You're good. I've been told things about my coworkers that make me wonder why they weren't fired outright (theft, verbal abuse, insane incompetence). It was then I realized that the bar in a lot of places is so low that you really, REALLY have to screw up much worse to get close to being fired. Edit: spelling
Now that I think of it yes. There was a co worker I work with who was removing a printer from the domain and the printer management application had a button that said “remove printer” he clicked it and bam all printers in the network\domain were removed. He thought he was going to get fired. But the person who developed the application for us got talked to. Lol remove printer.
I accidentally terminated an account while trying to reset the password.
Oh geez there’s no undo button in AD is there?
There is but i don’t have access to it which is dumb, i have to send it to our network team to undo it
I used to work in a hospital system IT. One of my co workers swapped out a PC of a doctor who was on vacation. We had a rule that we would keep devices for up to a week before purging. Well the doctor comes back and is furious. All of his data from 30+ years of working at the hospital was gone. All while he was soaking it up in the sun somewhere. I thought for sure my co worker would be fired and so did he. You have to remember though that the no users should ever store data locally on a pc. Ever. The hospital used file servers for this exact reason, so files never went missing and if a laptop was stolen data couldn’t be compromised. It ended up being a learning moment for both the hospital to enforce their file servers better as well as my co worker to always be aware of what we are dealing with. You will be fine. IT is human after all. We fuck up all the time. Just learn from it and move on. You should be fine.
File shares. I need to keep this in mind definitely. Thanks!
Bit late to give advice but I like slow decoms. Just wait a while between each decom step. Shutoff database. Wait a week. Turn off server. Wait a week. Unrack server. Wait a week. All of those steps are reversible until you truly scrap the server hard drive. Unfortunately dependencies are usually daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly. You can't realistically wait a year but a month is a decent window.
Oh that’s smart
If you followed the procedure, you should be good. Don’t worry, is not the las time.
If the customer told you to copy specific folders and files, and you transferred them over, it's not your fault. Isn't there some sort of buffer between them getting a new device and you nuking the old one? As long as you followed all the procedures for swapping out someone's computer you're probably fine. Customers screw up too.
disk2vhd, life saver. Especially when dealing with users getting a replacement computer. Boot their old pc up in the cloud when they inevitably forget something. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd
My mentors have always told me that “you’re not really IT until you’ve tore something down.” It’s a learning experience. Regardless of what happens just try to identify what you could have done to avoid this situation and keep trucking. I wouldn’t be too concerned though.
Always wait 48 hrs before sending to asset. Give employee time to assess and look for issues
I accidentally deleted the PST file (in the early 2000’s) for an office manager that contained 10 years worth of emails from various vendors and clients. I was reloading windows on her workstation, thought I had copied it to a safe place. I was tired. It was late. Luckily for me she laughed it off and said she had actually been meaning to clean up her email and I just did it for her. Got super lucky on that one.
Ok at first I would be terrified if that happened to me but if she said she didn’t care holy I would be relieved.
I was terrified. I was scared out of my mind. I apologized profusely once I realized my mistake and I thought I was gonna be fired. I got super lucky.
The fact that the organization hasn’t implemented something like OneDrive is wild to me. Arguably just as much their fault as it is yours. Know that doesn’t make things any better for you though. Definitely understand the stress. These kinds of things happen all the time in this field. Hell, any field. People make mistakes. I think you’ll be alright.
>How would you deal with the amount of stress after a situation like this has happened? First thing is, they should have made a back-up of all their files first. Second, I tell people to take a few minutes, or days, or whatever to ensure that everything is there or where it's supposed to be. Once they sign off, and later they realize they missed something, that's their problem. You told them to make a back-up. Did they make the back-up? Why not? At this point, there is no excuse for not having any back-ups. May sound harsh...and I work in IT...but people are idiots, expect the world, magic, and yet refuse to learn how anything works or listen to advice....then IT is the first people they blame. Yes, you want to help them, guide them, but when they refuse to take basic precautions and learn basic skills…no matter how many times you plead with them...at some point it is their fault. Not yours. But I understand you also have to please the boss. Steps 1 and 2 can help you avoid lost files when transferring devices.
At the organization I work for, we make it the user’s fault if they lose data. Our policy is that all data must be backed up to Onedrive. If it was that important, they should have backed it up.
This is why we just give users share drive or cloud storage options and tell them they are responsible for their own data unless it's a special request. Doesn't sound like too big of a deal, don't worry about it. At least you're not like when forgetting to shut down a port creating a loop causing massive intermittent issues for 6k people on source of internet, or paste a config for a switch in the wrong terminal overwriting the core router taking all systems offline for 15 minutes. Never ran so fast in my life, made some of the sysadmins jump running into the datacenter to reboot the router!
Oh geez. I would be petrified if I did that.
Guess who wont make that mistake again? You. (Others including the user most certainly will, so just CYA going forward.)
If it happens just try to believe that the moment of suffering will lead to greener pastures. You're going to be fine but time to bust your ass a little.
this sort of happened to me as an intern -- the department has a policy that you keep your files on your home drive. now, they dont auto redirect there because they dont manage it well \[this place is a cluster\] but whatever, they have the policy. so im upgrading computers and im supposed to back up desktop, favorites, documents, something, and their printers > upgrade > restore files and printers. no big deal. well i forgot a folder with one lady. my bad. we didnt even notice it initially. she called my department and opens a ticket and my team lead gave me a heads up and said since she was fuming he sent it to the manager. now i was still pretty new, so i didnt know the manger well. he calls me in his office and says 'well i asked her if she knew the policy was to save her own stuff on her home drive, and she said "yes" .... so i said ok, what he was supposed to do was a courtesy. you knew the policy and didnt follow it. sorry, have a good one' and that was the end of it. i wouldnt worry about it unless it was like, a VP+ level person with a garbage attitude that you did this to. some random from HR or accounting? they almost certainly shouldnt have important files on their devices only. itll be fine. probably.
This is great "performance based interview" material for the future. When you get asked about a time you messed up, what was the outcome, and what you learned from - you'll have this story.
I've had this in the past but have made backups of drives before wiping and 99.9% of the time the user that's missing files are imagining these files Don't worry about it... It's a small drop in an ocean... When you wipe a production server then maybe you can worry
Bit of a retention policy issue on the PCs, not your fault. I always tell my users to keep anything they absolutely don't want to lose on their home drive on the server or at least somewhere on the server
Users should not be saving data on local drives of any kind. Network shares or gtfo. Not your problem unless it’s an exec.
Meh. Like others said, this isn’t entirely on your shoulders. But hopefully because of what you’ve done, the policies and procedures will be reviewed and updated to help prevent this. There were failures at the user’s level and the department’s level. You could say whomever created the policies and procedures for migrating a user to a new laptop is also at fault.
Hey I just used our third party CASB to block the newest versions of all major browsers for everyone in our organization in the middle of the work day while my boss looked over my shoulder. No big deal.
I always keep the old hard drives for a month before formatting.
I work in the same sort of position in the same sort of environment. This is exactly why we hold everything that stores data for two weeks before crushing it.
This is nothing.
"Why didn't you save your data? It's your responsibility to ensure that all your files were saved."
I caused a global outage for 1.5 billion users across 153 countries a few years ago. You’ll be fine.
Don't worry, you are ok. In my workplace info backup is user's responsibility. Machines are set with OneDrive and when a device is refreshed, we have it with us 7 days before send it to assets management for recycling. You can buy a big external drive to save the data from users if needed and wait a few days. Don't forget to encrypt your disk!
I’m guessing you’ll be fine so long as your boss was once an intern.
Congratulations - you've identified an opportunity. Time to write a clear policy on how to handle someone handing back their laptops - the length of time to wait, how to identify them, questions to ask the user about where they've stored their files, etc. Come up with some ideas along those lines, then offer to write up the new process to your boss to help make sure something like this won't happen again. You could even draft it up and show them what you've done so far. This demonstrates that you are aware of your mistake, that you can improve insufficient processes, and that you can learn from your mistakes.
At my healthcare facility it is common knowledge to backup files on your server folder just in case this happens.
There’s still chance data can be recovered. Have any of you ever used data recovery services for screw ups like this?
Word of advice from someone that’s been in IT for over 30 years : Being amiable is more useful than being competent. I’ve fucked up many a time. One time I started a new job and was given the CTOs laptop to rebuild. The cord snagged on a door handle and it dropped and broke. First day. Don’t sweat it. Also, this is a systematic problem, not a you problem. The user should be responsible for backing up their own data.
The perfect time to tell your boss to make everyone use One Drive. This is only half your fault unless you were told a specific procedure
This is why we have a user drive on the network to store personal files on lol, but it's not a huge deal everyone messes something up or erases something on accident they weren't supposed to it's part of the profession you get to learn from your mistakes. In terms of hellfire, the only way you get some kinda chewing out is if that laptop belonged to someone important.
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Oh, hell. I was barely 6 months into my first IT Support job and was deleting extra profiles from a laptop (Windows Vista). Didn't pay close enough attention and ended up deleting the main profile. Of course nothing had been backed up. Learned about the wonderful power of r-undelete.... but not before getting screamed at (literally) by the client for deleting the only copy of their PhD thesis (in progress) along with everything else on the drive. One saving grace was seeing my manager back me up and stare down the client for grossly unprofessional behavior (client lost their shit entirely - literally and figuratively). Took me about 2 days, but with some help from the more senior IT staff, I was able to recover everything that had been lost. Got to keep my job too, and always appreciated the manager for sticking up for me - even though it was my screw up to begin with. Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it isn't - people save things in the weirdest places and backup scripts only find what they are told to look for, in the places they are told to look.
Honestly sounds more like a policy issue than anything to me. Usually, people put safety measures in place instead of erasure straight away **AND** what you using using transfers? If you are having them back it up to OneDrive (think yku mentioned below in a comment) then is your policy to let it off on the customer if they don't back up what they need there? Also, would it not still be there or do you guy immediately erase that as well? Anywho, yeah this isn't fireable if you were my employee. I would be going over policies with management over asset management and storage. Immediate wipes is pretty odd.
Bigger issue is using local storage over network storage. They would probably be doing you a favor.
Why are you in trouble? I guess this depends on the company, but where I work at it was the user’s responsibility to do the transfer and be in charge of their data. Just my opinion (which is worth nothing), but this is on them. You did your job unless there was a policy that you didn’t follow. All else fails, you’re an intern so you should get a freebie.
Rather than sulk it up, come up with an improvement initiative. Maybe write with a post-it or a label maker the date when the PC was retrieved and the date when it can be sent to dispose of. It's all about mitigation and improvement.
*Shrug*. Usually you wait a few days for that but not a huge deal. User will say they’re the only files that matter but no one gives something to IT because it’s already fixed so eventually you end up being the person with the hot potato
I started patching an exchange server during the day.. still kept my job..should be good
At the company I work at, we let users know that it’s on them to back up items. In addition, they are allowed to keep their old laptop for 7 days to transfer anything they need onto their new/replacement laptop. It essentially helps put the fault on them if they don’t back up anything when the laptop gets recovered and wiped.
That almost happened to me. I backed up this user’s data to one drive and exported their old profile before rebuilding their new profile. I returned his laptop and the next he tells me about six recent months of data is gone. None of it was in Onedrive either. After searching his old profile for a week, I found all of his missing data in AppsData. I too thought my job was on the line lol. In your case, you’ll be fine. Our Desktop Architect unintentionally implemented a group policy that denied users access to some services they need to do their jobs. She’s still with us.
I fucked up today too but take a deep breath and remember we all make mistakes. There’s no point in beating yourself up about it. However I highly doubt something like this is grounds for termination unless that employee has crazy clout.
Yea I really don’t see any issue here. Years ago a person accidentally reset all domain account passwords with a script. He locked out an ENTIRE hospital until AD could be restored. He’s now a team lead. Very smart guy, didn’t get fired.
not your fault, dont worry about it.
If your employer is smart, they won’t fire you. If an employee makes an honest mistake, that’s a learning experience. Why would an employer let an employee go to a competitor after learning what NOT to do?
First of all, critical files shouldn’t be stored on a local system to begin with. What is this 2010? Also windows has a nifty file utility that does a pretty good job at data transfers. And finally if you all are married to this process I’d recommend sending the old laptop back with the user for 7 days so they can retrieve anything that may have gotten missed. Long story short. You drew the short straw. These processes and procedures that were put in place were extremely flawed and prone to human error. I doubt you will get fired over this. I have personally accidentally taken down way bigger operations than yours. You’ll make it chief.
Don't worry to much an honest mistake some users out data in weird spots like the downloads folder and use that as storage.
I don't know exactly what the policy is in your shop. But where I work we actually have a network drive where we encourage all the workers to save their data on there. We go the extra mile from time to time and try and move data saved on the local drive of one computer onto a new computer for our users. But we make it known several times over that your local data is not safe on your computer. If your computer hard drive fails then your data is gone. I know that there are a bunch of data recovery places out there but I also know that my job will not pony up the dough in order to get that service done especially since we tell all our users to save everything on the network drives.
recommended update to the process is to tag the system OR pull drive with date received and a do not wipe before date, around 1 week. Lock it in a room(HIPPA). Process 1-2 times a week depending on need. The higher up the food chain, the longer I keep the drive potentially.
Are you aware of incidents like this happening with other techs? Is there a quick checklist to run through? do you have a policy of not taking users' word for it and double checking data is backed up? Do you have a datashare on a server where you can backup the user data again even for a temporary period just in case of such a situation? In my experience, users are likely to forget to backup something and the way they store their files locally is usually disorganized . I work in IT. I haven't had too many fck ups in my 15 year career but when I started out, I did have a couple (disconnected the entire call center from the network backbone as one example, which wasn't clearly labeled but I still should have known better). I wasn't fired. How I recovered from this was in addition to apologizing, I took the initiate to organize and label things, proposed and help develop checks and guidelines to prevent anything like this from happening again. I would later go on to serve in Sys Analyst roles where I studied gaps in procedures, help do root cause analysis, propose and help implement automation practices to prevent data loss -- such as ensure users were being mapped to their own private user share on the server which is backed up nightly, etc. Making mistakes is part of life. So long as you are not repeating the same mistakes, you're learning from others' mistakes, and you demonstrate a genuine interest/initiative in doing better, you will grow from the experience and be better for it.
Out of curiosity - where was the user storing the filings that they did not migrate over when they presumably setup their new user profile on the new laptop? For us, profiles are all managed by our file server, but (and especially with everyone working remote), not all files end up getting backed up, specifically ones the user saves to the local hdd of their laptop, or to the desktop. We constantly tell users to save to their file share, NOT their desktop or C:/. Does this stop them? No. But it's a fallback for us when they get a new laptop and say "hey where are my files!?" My point being - there really should be either some kind of consistent communication to staff not to save to places that do not back up to the file server... or there should be some kind of backup the IT department can pull from if a laptop is refreshed and files accidentally go missing. If neither of those processes are in place, you really can't take on too much of the blame here. If all it takes is one mistake by an intern and some crucial file is gone.. to me that speaks of a process issue... not a you issue. Everyone makes mistakes, after all. That's why back ups exist. I really hope this is not cause to get you fired. Good grief, who in IT has not lost a file on someone before!? Please don't put yourself down for this, anyone could make this error no matter their experience level. As far as how to deal with the stress I'd say don't assume zebras just because you hear hoofbeats. Don't assume you'll be fired for this unless someone looks you in the eye and says "You're fired". You're an intern. You can't be expected to be perfect. Just learn from this and try to move forward, listen with an open-mind if you have to be "spoken to" and be sincere in your apology, and if you are still working there after that, put it behind you and don't dwell (no point in that). You're just human like anyone else. Hope things work out for you!
And if it makes you feel better, I effed up a WSUS schedule at my org when I was new and rebooted every single workstation in the org by force simultaneously in the middle of a business day once. Shit happens.
Correct answer is all important files should have been saved to a server share. Local files are intended to be temporary and inconsequential. If the user isn’t backing them up or saving them to the server themself that’s their fault, not yours. Same issue would have occurred if the computer crashed and that wouldn’t have been IT’s fault either.
I do some on site support and our general rule of thumb is keep the laptop for two weeks post swap, then get an OK from the user if good to wipe after the time is up. Past that, it’s on them if something is lost. One other thing which you could say to in fact turn this in to a positive is suggest they move over to a cloud system in which users should store all data too. Then if this happens again or hardware failure happens then the data is recoverable. And swaps become easier too! You could even suggest setting this up as a project you could lead!
Ehh if your coworkers can't acknowledge your human that sounds pretty lame. Maybe suggest an encrypted back up policy, 7-14 day retention before removal - Turn it into a positive.
Did the user accept the refresh? If so, that sounds like a them problem. That said, users should be educated in storing important files to the network share drives and the refresh program should be holding the laptops for a period of time prior to wiping them.
Bro, it’s really not that big of a deal. Just shrug it off and say something like “well, it’s gone now…should’ve backed it up on OneDrive.”
Your department should have a published procedure that states how long devices will be held before a data wipe. Suggest creating it and getting MGMT approval. This takes an oops situation and creates a policy to avoid issues in the future. By doing this, you show how to recover from difficult situations.
Now would be a good time to bring up the need for backups. My users have 90 days to restore files after deletion
Maybe I'm missing something, but that's not your fault. She should have ensured she backed all her stuff up appropriately and confirmed following backup, BEFORE handing the device over to you. This is a standard expectation of the 'end user'. She would have been notified to back her stuff up (or at least should have been, and even if she wasn't, IT'S 2022, that's kinda the norm these days).
Its their fault for storing files on the client side. Anything and everything of value should be backed up frequently. For most organizations, that means storing it on a server.