I've lost attachments to old gmail messages before, I never thought it was impossible or unlikely for Google to lose data. I'm sure the data wasn't truly lost.

I've lost attachments to old gmail messages before, I never thought it was impossible or unlikely for Google to lose data. I'm sure the data wasn't truly lost. If I'd called them up and they'd made it their priority to find my old files, they could have done so, having so many redundant backups. But of course no one at Google is taking calls like that or acting on individual requests. The data was effectively lost, not technically lost. But I'm sure it's uncommon.