How to Lose Stuff in PACLab/
How to Recover (if possible)
You can lose stuff (or at least lose track of stuff) in PACLab in various ways:
* By saving work in a temp area (with out knowing it) and losing it at logout; the classical example being the one you are warned about at login.
* By developing work in an application with the PACLab station crashing before you saved or PACLab time logged you out.
* By selecting a file/folder and accidentally dragging to a another folder, making it disapear from the current list.
* By delibertly dragging a file/folder to another folder on the same device, making it disappear from the current location because you didn't hold down the "Ctrl" key; the latter causes the operation to copy instead of just move.
Details
I. Saving in Temp/Losing at Log Out
(1) By Saving a Document Openned in E-Mail
You are warned of this via this message at login:
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The story behind this is that you as a student might tend transport a document or some other material to PACLab by E-Mailing it to your self as an attachment and then open it up in PACLab where you do more work on it, print it, etc. The problem here is that something openned as an E-Mail attachment in PACLab saves by default in a temp area of "C:", lost a logout. If you do some work on it and don't use "Save As" to save your efforts in a more permenant storage area such as your "H:" drive, any work you do is lost at log out; this is because just "Save" saves in the temp area, again lost when you log out.
(2) Saving in a "C:" Folder with the Same Name as an "H:" Folder
Actually in the case of SPSS and SAS you don't actually lose it, but you do save it in a "C:" folder, where it stays until someone deletes it on this PACLab PC; you think it's on "H:" and when you try to access it on "H:" you won't find it and wonder what happended (especially if you've gone to another computer)
We exemplify this with the SPSS Windows Data Editor where you have typed the data of your first survey, carefully saving it in your "H:\SPSS" folder; then later opened this data in the SPSS Editor by double clicking on it as listed in Windows Explorer; after cleaning it up of any errors, you save back into "H;\SPSS". Then you open a new session of the Editor from this session, type in the data of your second survey; open up the "Save As" box as shown below:
and because you saw "SPSS" in the "Save in" text box, you assumed SPSS had set you up to save on "H:\SPSS", so much so that you didn't even notice that the folders/files listed below were actually different from yours on "H:"; you clicked Save, got out of the Editor, walked away thinking your hard work had been saved on "H:". Fortunately in the case of SPSS and similarly with SAS (which also saves by default in the SAS" folder on "C:"), it remains there even if you log out; here the worse scenario is that you tried to access it on "H:" elsewhere, pulled your hair out wondering what happened to it, retyped the second survey data again and this time of course safely saved it onto "H:" -- but alas you had to repeat your efforts. The good news is that it is still on the "C:" drive of the PACLab PC that you were using and all you had to do was return to that station, open the Window/SPSS Data Editor, clicked File-->Open; in the "Open File" box you would have seen your second survey ".sav" file listed; you opened it and saved safely onto your "H:".
II. By Developing Work without Saving/Losing It with a PACLab Crash or Timed Log Out.
See my Recovering Unsaved/Miss Saved Microsoft Office Documents in the Labs
II. By selecting a file/folder and accidentally dragging to a another folder
Should you select a file or a folder (i.e., click on it ais listed in, for example, a Save As box like above), if you drag (possibly by accident) to another listed folder, it will disappear from view. This may be particularly surprizing/puzzing if in a Save As box because you intention is to select it for specifying where to save, not to drag to another folder. To get it back where you intented it to be, click in the folder where it disappeared (if now sure which folder, keep clicking folders until your missing folder appears); it should list in the listing of that folder; then right click it, and then click copy (or cut -- copy preferred in case you foul up); then in a file manager such as Windows Explorer list the name of the folder that was listed in the Save as box that had the folder that you lost (this folder that you list may actually be the root of the disk device such as the "H:" drive) , right click and then click paste.
III. By dragging a file/folder to another folder on the same device without holding down the Ctrl key at the same time.
If you are in for example a file manager such as Windows Explorer and you click a file or folder listed in it and drag the name to anothe folder on the same device, the file/folder will move to this other folder, disappearing from its current listing in the file manager. To make it copy instead of move (and diasappear from the current location), do the click and drag while holding down the Ctrl key.