The Toy Story films are some of the most cherished animated movies ever made, but the second part of the trilogy almost disappeared for good — and it was all because of a bad backup. According to Pixar’s Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman, during development someone ran the rm* command on the drive where all of the Toy Story 2’s files were being stored, essentially erasing about a year’s worth a work in 20 seconds. Even worse, the team soon realized that the backup files they had made were actually bad, leaving them with no copies whatsoever. Or so it seemed. Luckily, Susman had a copy of the film on her computer at home, which ultimately saved the day. Though it’s a charming tale — and one that’s at least a few years old — it still serves as an excellent reminder to always backup your work, even if you aren’t working on something as huge as a feature-length movie.
Watch this: ‘Toy Story 2’ almost disappeared thanks to a bad backup
A bad backup almost erased Pixar’s Toy Story 2 for good.
A bad backup almost erased Pixar’s Toy Story 2 for good.
is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
