A bit virtual this one
but I typed del *.* to remove my files from the LAN when I left university.

Turned out that the cretinous sysadmin had put all students' work in the root folder of the same drive and (this being ancient MS-DOS) there were no access permissions, so everyone could read or write to everyone else's folders.

And, having zero computer knowledge except a smattering of BBC Basic, I'd typed del *.* on the root folder.

And it did what it's supposed to do. Poof! went everyone's design projects.

And knowing the cretinous sysadmin, he never had any backups.

They never found out it was me, though.
(rogerzilla, Fri 9 Nov 2012, 18:22, 19 replies)

virtual made up
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 9 Nov 2012, 19:05, closed)

if only
I was sweating like Jimmy Savile at a Brownies meeting for the last week of term.
(rogerzilla, Fri 9 Nov 2012, 19:08, closed)

I can believe it.
I once showed a boss at work how, by using command prompt, I could rename every file in a folder with a few keystrokes. I then pointed out that had I typed "del" instead of "ren" they would have been gone, and not in the Recycle folder. The IT department had apparently never thought to safeguard against this.

He was not amused.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Sat 10 Nov 2012, 5:04, closed)

Oh boy.
Computers.
( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 9:03, closed)

This is why women want to be him.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 18:41, closed)

Can't assume the IT bods didn't have it covered - you'll only be able to delete stuff you have permissions for, and in any event, they'll most likely have backups. It would be a poor sysadmin whose data recovery plan consisted entirely of "er, I can get it out of the recycle bin".
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 17:08, closed)

Except it never happened.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 18:42, closed)

del *.* never removed folders. Just files.
( scoshi pretending to diet since, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 18:24, closed)

If people start pointing out the glaring holes in all the feebles' lies then the whole of qftw will become nothing more than a cheap venue for mocking inferiors.
Oh.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 18:44, closed)

On a completely unrelated note, here is a picture of a braying jackass:

( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 23:28, closed)

hahahah

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Sun 11 Nov 2012, 10:47, closed)

What are all these whimpering yanks doing on here anyway?

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Sun 11 Nov 2012, 12:46, closed)

Your bumhole, mainly.

( The Mock Turtle ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 13 Nov 2012, 0:26, closed)

That's very generous of me, I must say.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 14 Nov 2012, 18:58, closed)

yep, wasn't it deltree *.* /y that was the nuke button?

( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Sat 10 Nov 2012, 22:41, closed)

Format
c: would also cause a certain amount of carnage.

[edit]

To prevent nerd attacks, I'll revise that to 'echo 'Y'|format c:'

Or something like that.
(username failed moderation, Mon 12 Nov 2012, 10:17, closed)

/s
does recursive too doesn't it? or maybe not on deltree...

del *.* /s but would still leave the folders? gah
(TheManofScience, Mon 12 Nov 2012, 11:32, closed)

indeed you need
rd /q /s

To get rid of everything. It still works in a command prompt on most flavours of Windows.
( heyrudi has just found this setting, Mon 12 Nov 2012, 12:07, closed)

Well even if you had been found out, it would hardly be your fault that the sysadmin was an incompetent buffoon.
(thefuckestuppest cheapened this, on, Tue 13 Nov 2012, 13:58, closed)