How Pixar recovered Toy Story 2 after a Unix command deleted nearly the entire film in 1998

A single mistyped Unix command nearly erased Toy Story 2 from existence.

In 1998, a routine file deletion command ran in the wrong directory at Pixar, wiping roughly 90% of the film's production data in minutes. Associate technical director Oren Jacob watched it happen in real time, files disappearing from his screen. "You don't often watch a company vaporize in front of your eyes," he later said.

The studio's backup system, the safeguard built precisely for moments like this, had been failing silently. No one knew until they needed it.

What saved the film was something far less official: a personal computer sitting in supervising technical director Galyn Susman's home. She had built a remote workflow during her pregnancy, quietly syncing updated files so she could work after hours. That machine held the only intact version of the movie. It was carefully driven back to Pixar's campus and powered up.

Susman later said, "Personally, I still think Toy Story 2 is the best of the franchise."