Comment by ratelimitsteve

if you love it, make a copy of it

this is the kind of thing that is so fundamental to IT that not doing it is at best negligence and at worst intentional malpractice. There is simply no situation that justifies not having backups and I think it might be worth assuming intentionality here, at least for purposes of investigation. It looks like an accident but someone (perhaps several someones, somefew if you will) made a series of shriekingly bad decisions in order to put themselves in a precarious place where an accident could have an effect like this.