Disappearing Files?

[techno_race]

I am working in a public computer lab on a client/server configuration. I have my own account here, and recently all my files disappeared. They do not appear to be existent on any client computers or the server computer. I always use the same computer here, and work here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is no backup of these files. Does anybody have any ideas how to recover the files?

[boogyman]

chances are the public lab "prunes" its computers every so often.

it is possible to recover them, however you would need to talk to the administrators of that computer lab. and typically if they have been "deleted" off the lab computers, you would need to use a special program to "forensically recover" them, which typically is quite expensive and something I am sure a public computer lab would not want/do

[djr33]

boogyman's response is correct.

Also:
1. They might have magnetic tape backups of files; you can ask. (or some other backups)
2. This is why it's a terrible idea to trust any computer you don't control (or even one you do) with the only copy of important files. Always backup. If nothing else, flash drives are pretty cheap these days.

[techno_race]

Thank you, but it turns out that I was using the wrong computer.