I had a similar thing happen. The boss of one of the other departments was told to backup your files on a "z" drive and a external drive and was told multiple times how to. Didn't and lost everything. Told my boss about it and he asked how much to send out the drive to be recovered. Told him and he turned white. No recovery.She hated my guts but couldn't complain. Idiots happen everywhere. I retired after she left.