So much for empathy. Not all students are as technically literate as HN readers or in the same position to understand or manage the data they deal with. Let's not rush to blame them.

Some students and staff likely use specialised (often very very expensive) software that locally process gigabytes of data, e.g. in the fields of biology and chemistry. These datasets or simulations will be in proprietary formats buried deep in some folder somewhere or in an even more inaccessible database hidden from the user. The PCs in question could also be physically tied to hardware systems in a lab. They're not going to expect that machine to be randomly wiped while working on the data, possibly for weeks at a time. They don't know where the data is. At best they might export the data (a feature which probably doesn't exist for most programs) and archive it at the end of their project. This IT screwup will hurt them a lot.