This morning I was running a few minutes early for work, so I decided to stop at a convenience store on the way to work and pick up an energy drink. Just as I pulled into the parking lot, the four loonies I had in my pocket for this purpose all slid out and under the car's seat. The gap was just large enough to let the change slide under, but not large enough for my fingers. Of course, the seats in my car are electric, so underneath is a maze of wires, grease, sharp metal, and springs. Eventually I dig out the change, go inside, and buy my drink. Little did I know this loose change incident would be an ill omen for the rest of my day.

I get to work and am informed that in the afternoon I'll have to do some inventory stuff. This really has nothing to do with my job, but that's actually why I get chosen. I'm pretty much impartial to what goes on in the shop (I just handle computer stuff), so sometimes it's helpful for them to have an outside observer. Anyway, it's boring **** and I have better things to do, so I'm not looking forward to it.

I go to my office, login and all that, and just a few minutes later I hear that they managed to trip a circuit breaker in the Data Processing department. This happens to be where the main Sales department server is kept. It's on a beefy battery backup, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Well, it turns out that the data guys had decided they needed a coffee maker in the room (there are two within 20'-30', one in the sales kitchen and one near the front desk), so they plugged it in near the server. Into the battery side of the UPS, specifically. So of course, when the power went out it was on and sucked the life out of the UPS, causing the server to go down.

All Sales personnel that do not have laptops (probably about 80-90%) keep their Outlook PST files on the sales server, so that it can be included in the nightly backup. When the server went down they all had Outlook open, which resulted in all of their .PST files becoming corrupt. I begin running the Inbox Repair Tool on each affected person's PC, which can take over an hour depending on the size of the pst. Some of them are still running now, some have ended successfully. Others have ended prematurely, refuse to keep running, and the PSTs appear to be screwed.

No problem though, right? They had the file on the server so that it could get backed up. Yeah, well, turns out that in February the VP of the company decided the server password needed to be changed, and nobody thought to update the password supplied for the Task Scheduler backup tasks. This means that the nightly backups haven't happened since February (why it was nobody's job to check and make sure the backups actually happened I have no idea). So, there goes my safety net. The most recent weekly backup is from May 22nd (a full week ago, the next would be tonight). For the people with unrepairable PSTs chances are I'll have to give them a copy of their week old backup and try and pull as much stuff from their corrupt current PST as possible (chances are almost nothing will be recoverable).

I don't think any of the Sales staff realize how dire the situation is. Most of them are still waiting for the inbox repair tool to finish. Chances are quite good that some of them will lose up to a week of email, contacts, and appointments. Which in the sales world is a big, big problem. I can't wait to tell them the good news.

So, that was my morning, and probably the rest of my week. Feel free to rant about stuff that's pissing you off today.

...

My room is hot.

But you are the phoenix.


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Ok, I hate my apartment. Every single freakkking time I try to start my HW, little kids down stairs start running jumping around. I don't know what to do so I just boom my music up.

My fluorescent light bulb (The one thats long [about 1.7 meters]) popped out and it took me an hour to put back on.

I don't have cable so all that was on was those stupid paid programs such as "Natural Remedies." Ugh, I hate that one the MOST.

Your job sounds like Dilbert.

The stupid ****ing bus missed me for a second time this month. Note: it missed me, not the other way around. I waited for 15 minutes and it simply sped by in order to get through the intersection before the light turned red.

So that was an interesting walk home.

Just finished the inventory stuff. Counting hundreds of greasy little metal parts was an awesome addition to my day. Especially when I don't know what any of the crap is so I need the Purchasing guy to identify stuff on the list for me.

Some of the inventory totals were off by a fair amount, I think he's going to be in a lot of trouble.

As for the email situation, most people seem to have recoverable PSTs so far. It turns out the weekly backup system wasn't backing up PST files that were in use, making it pretty much useless. If I encounter someone whose PST is screwed I basically have no backup now.

...and I thought I had a bad morning. Sucks to be you.

If it makes you feel any better, I've been starring blanky at the ****ing computer screen for the last 6 hours with nothing else to do. I'd much rather be doing what you are doing, problem or not, you're not seeing every secondd of the day pass by.

End already you stupid day

Whose shoulders does this issue fall on? Coffe maker people? VP? Chances are, you'll get the blame, right?

That's a very good question. I'm most certainly in the clear, whether everyone involved sees that or not. The server going down is the fault of the coffee maker people, even though it was an accident. There's no way I can be blamed for that.

The lack of backups I guess would technically be a combination of the fault of the VP (who by the way is now the president, the former president retired recently) and those involved with setting up the backup script (my two main bosses). Nobody knew to update the password, so really it's a no-fault situation.

Even though none of this is my fault, I'm the one who gets to do the dirty work of trying to restore people's data, and giving them the bad news if I can't. Since I'm the main "computer guy", I'm sure many of them will see it as my fault and blame me. Even though I know it's not my fault, it still makes me feel pretty crappy.

I haven't yet had to tell anyone that their data is completely lost, and there's a chance that everything will be recoverable, so I'm still hoping it doesn't come to that. Discovering that we basically have no pst backups was completely shocking and really hit my confidence hard. It's the kind of thing where in the back of your mind you're always thinking "well, if all else fails, at least I still have the nightly backups, or at worst the weekly". Knowing that both haven't been happening is just a terrible, terrible feeling.

At least I know that I can't be fired over this, or anything like that. Even if the sales people see it as my fault, management knows it isn't. That's what counts.

Something popped in my left shoulder blade last night so it aches like crazy today. I'm also sooo alone

Okay, mr "no dating till the end of the decade". There will be no crying about lack of massages for your shoulder (and that's what your post was) nor lonliness when you have made a pact with the devil like that one!

I'm more lonely because everyone left before I woke up. And as much as I love having the house to myself, it's boring a lot of the time.

The halls have been steadily emptying for the past week or so. There's currently four people other than myself on my floor, one of which is a recluse who we never see, and another is currently in Manchester visiting some of her friends. It's quiet. Too quiet...

The weather's also been alternating between calm and pouring down every half hour or so, and my neck is sore.

But I'm going home on Thursday, so I can deal with a few minor grievances.

The sales staff might lose a week's worth of contacts and email? Boo-****ing hoo, I say. If they can't remember it, then too bad.

My morning was fine, I guess; but my night sucks, the ex just started dating her best friend after telling me we were breaking up because she didn't want to be in any kind of a relationship right now, and filling me with all of this bull**** hope that we'd one day be together again!

My day's been good.
finaly got the air conditioner installed in my room so it's no longer 90F in here.
And that I like very much.
Plus, because of memorial day, I got the day off, as well as friday and saturday.
So... yeah.

But, like so many others here, I am also single and lonely so that makes everyday suck just alittle. But that's pretty much it.

I bit my tongue so hard this afternoon that it bled for a while when I was working. I talk funny and whenever I move it it hurts.

[11:55] <Impi> So, I'm supposed to be working on my practical exam at the moment for which I've got 5.5 hours.
[11:55] <Impi> Only problem is that I'm already finished...
[11:56] <Impi> And the examiner wasn't here, yet, so I don't know what to tell him when he arrives.
[11:57] <Impi> And the worst thing is, that he really likes chocolate, but we don't have any here!!!

The last problem was solved by my bosses who bought some chocolate cookies. But I'm still waiting for him. He has got 1.5 hours left.

Clearly you've never worked in an office setting. Sales people bring in money. Lost emails and contacts means losing out on money. This is the worst thing that can happen to a business. Also, I later posted that I discovered the weekly backups didn't work either, so if somebody's PST is unrecoverable they lose everything. Yay.

I had my final Higher exam and sort of unofficially finished school.

Yeah, my morning was pretty good actually.

Don't mind Freelancer, he's our local homer. He. Just. Doesn't. Get. It.

So how did things turn out? I can feel you pain, having a similar job. (And a horrible network)

It all ended up turning out alright, actually. It seems nobody's PST was completely unrecoverable, so I didn't find myself in a situation where the lack of backups hurt me. The whole ordeal still took me about two days to sort out, so that sucked, but at least nobody lost anything. It also served as a nice reminder to management to stay on top of backups. This is leading to new policies about checking the integrity of backups and such, so in the end I guess it was a good wake-up call for them.

I have two presentation to do today, however neither am I prepared for them, nor do I actually have any public speaking skills