The title is stupid clickbait, and the story is interesting enough without it. Basically, all the files were deleted by mistake and the backups weren’t working, so they lost everything. Fortunately, a technical director had been working from home to care for her newborn, and thus had copies on her own computer.
Some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30330740
Pixar almost deleted Toy Story 2 (2012) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33344516
Did Pixar accidentally delete Toy Story 2 during production? (2012)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13417037
How Pixar Almost Lost Toy Story 2 To A Bad Backup
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3972798
The title is stupid clickbait, and the story is interesting enough without it. Basically, all the files were deleted by mistake and the backups weren’t working, so they lost everything. Fortunately, a technical director had been working from home to care for her newborn, and thus had copies on her own computer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story_2#Troubled_productio... (third paragraph)