This comment adds nothing to the discussion, because absolutely no one reading HN is unaware that that was preventable, and serves no purpose other than to mock someone building things. That should be anathema here.

Not sure I agree. Everyone thinks that backups aren't necessary until something happens to them.

Do you think the author had never heard of svn/backups until it happened to him?

> Everyone thinks that backups aren't necessary until something happens to them.

On the contrary, everybody knows backups are necessary, the problem is bothering to actually do it regularly, especially on a high-intensity time of pre-launch. Personally I forgot to eat at times when working on our Kickstarter campaign video...

Agreed! I'm surprised of the number of comments of this ilk, as if it was the main point (or even a point) of this story.

If the OP had walked onto dog poo just before entering YC's offices and had brought an awful smell to the interview (which would belong to the same category of small catastrophes), would people point out that you really should watch your steps??

Besides, isn't it possible (not necessary, just possible) that successful entrepreneurs are the kind of people who don't have time to backup their stuff, make their bed in the morning, store 10 days of food in the fridge and buy stuff in pairs in case one breaks?

Earlier this year I had 5 computers die on me over a period of a month and a half.

Guess who is a lot more conscientious about backups and source control than he used to be.

With all those new computers I'd say you don't have to worry about backups for at least another 2 years.

I guess that comment was cynical, but just to be sure: http://blog.backblaze.com/2013/11/12/how-long-do-disk-drives.... Especially in the beginning there is a higher failure rate for disk drives. So it is actually the opposite: backups should be one of the first things to arrange for new machines.

> Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the qualities of the poster as a software engineer

Being able to write some code doesn't make you know anything about the rest of the system.

just beware also.. git or subversion can be corrupted. so the best multi server zip/tar backup