<p>It is not entirely inconceivable that “my computer ate my homework” happened, since most computer users do not back up their important data (meaning their home computers, not workplaces that generally do back up their data), so that their precious data can be destroyed or lost in a hard drive crash (or computer lost/stolen). But that speaks of carelessness on the part of the user (an admittedly common form of carelessness, though).</p>