1. Caddell 1
Nancy Caddell
ENG 101
Professor Alicia Bolton
January 30, 2012
Project Nightmare
As an accounting major several years ago I was required to create a company’s entire
bookkeeping system. This project required time and thought. The assignment was for me to setup
the company, pretend to run it for a year, and then do the year-end books. This assignment
required many pages and formulas to be created in Excel. There were graphs, charts, reports, and
ledgers, all to be carefully created. I spent weeks both with my study group and on my own
creating this system. With all the hard work that this project required I had thankfully thought to
back up my work as I went, so I could fix any future problems.
Our professor allowed us to submit this project during two class periods. I went into class
that first night relaxed and confident that my project was done. It was on my jump drive, ready to
open up for the professor. When she saw it completed I would forward it over by e-mail to be
graded. I was feeling good. This project was worth 40% of my final grade, making it the one
thing I wanted a perfect score on. Somehow I just knew I had made the grade.

2. Caddell 2
I walked in with Anne, one of my study buddies, booted up the computer and plugged in
my jump drive.
I looked at Anne and ask “Did you remember your project?”
She replied “For once I remembered without having to be reminded!”
I turned back to my computer and opened the file containing the project. Up came the
excel program, but wait a minute! What the heck is on the screen? It looks like a child had gotten
a hold of the program. There was nothing but weird symbols in place of my data. All I could
think was “Oh no, I have lost my project!”
I started breathing hard. My mind was racing. My heart was racing. What am I going to
do? This paper means so much to my grade. All that hard work down the drain.There’s got to be
a way to fix this.
I swing toward Anne and almost scream “Look my project is gone! What am I going to
do?”
She replies “Calm down maybe it just opened funny. Try closing the program and
opening it back up.”

3. Caddell 3
I quickly close down and reopen Excel. Now to open the file. One heart beat then two
later I open my eyes to see the same gibberish as before. I am starting to panic here. Weeks’
worth of work gone, what can I do? I slowly rise from my seat and approach my professor.
“Mrs. C., I need your help please.”
“What is wrong Nancy?”
“There is a problem with my project. Can you please look at it?”
“Sure.”
We walked back to my desk where Mrs. C. retried what I had already tried. She had no
luck either. She even tried to move to another computer, but still no luck. Mrs. C. suggested
taking the jump drive to the computer professor to see if anything could be done. I pulled the
jump drive and walked to the computer professor’s office. My stomach was in knots and I had
little hope of a quick fix. I knocked on Ms. R.’s door and asked if she had a minute. When she
responded yes, I told her what the problem was. She took the jump drive and looked at the file.
“Nancy I really hope you backed your work up in more than one place. Your file is
corrupt and never going to open right from this jump drive.” Ms. R. gave me a sad little smile as
she said this.
There was that sick feeling again. I had started this project on my computer and was
saving to the computer to start with. Somewhere in the process of completing this project I had
started saving to the jump drive. So now I am missing part of my project and I have no idea how
much. I thanked Ms. R. For her help and headed back to class.
Upon arrival in my classroom I told Mrs. C. what I found out. I had to admit that I would
have to recreate part of my project. I didn’t know if I would be able to get it done in two days.
Mrs. C. said to go home and to start working on it, if I saw where I needed more time to just e-

4. Caddell 4
mail her. As I gathered my stuff I saw three of my study buddies talking to Mrs. C. They looked
like they were upset so, I decided to ask Anne what was wrong. Her answer was that three of
them had decided to wait until the next class to turn in their projects so they could leave to help
me. Mrs. C. agreed to this so we left for my house.
Once at my house I discovered that I had a
little over half of my project on the computer, and
also had printed out some of the sheets I needed.
It would not be so hard to put my project back
together. My study buddies stayed with me late
that night helping to put it back together. By
midnight with their help I had recreated all of my worksheets and formulas and just had to plug
in the data to make sure it computed correctly.
I was able to complete the project before my next class and still received a 95 for a grade.
I learned from this to make multiple backups of my files and even make hardcopy backups. By
ensuring that I had backed up the information I had worked on I was able to avoid having a
major problem like I would have faced if I had had to completely redo the project from scratch.