While I can not help recover the lost data, I can share a couple of incidents that help put it in perspective and hopefully let you smile as you re-write the code.
years ago in the early days of computers, disk drive crashes were a regualr event. So much so that I specialized in disk drives and keeping data intact. I have seen months of key-punch data go away and on onother occation 3 months of 30 developers lost due to lack of a backup. In this last case the pre-amp for R/W write heads had chunks of shrapnel inbededd the PCB. I worked with anothe fellow for days to try and recover the data with nothing to show except a pile of bad disk and heads.
One day as I arrived at work the 3rd shift engineer updated me on the event that happened over night.
These stories always start with;
A hard drive crashed...
My co-worker worked to rebuild the drive and ran diagnostics just fine.
They put the backup pack )many hard drives had interchangable packs ) in the newly repaided drive and where in the process of restoring the data when as they stood behind the disk drive cabinet the noticed a brown dust blowing out of the back of the drive.
Customer : What is THAT?
Co-worker : Data
Reflecting on the topic as a whole.
1) There are only two types of disk drives, those that are bad and those that are not bad yet.
2) Backup often.
3) Storage devices can be rated from short term storage to long term. Working from short term storage to long we find;
A) CPU register
B) Cache
C) Memory
D) Disk drive
E) Tape storage
F) Paper
G) Papyrus
H) Stone
Only F-H are long term storage.
Ctrl-S is your friend, Source code control is your saviour.
Final thought:
Every time I have had to rewrite a VI, I did it better and faster than the first time.
Sorry about reading about your loss!
Ben
