I accidentally deleted/overwrote important files. How do I recover them?

First, check in your computer's Recycle Bin or Trash folder for your lost files. If they aren't there, your friendly support staff might have them. We backup user files on the departmental UNIX servers every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 1:00 a.m. We reuse the storage tapes every ten days, so contact us as soon as possible (staff@math.wisc.edu, room 507).

The computer crashed while I was editing a file. Can my file be recovered?

If you were using vi, vi will send you an email message containing instructions on how to restore your file. If you were using emacs, emacs has an autosave feature. The backup copy has the same name as your file but with a tilda (~) after it. Pico does not have an autosave feature, so if you were using it and not saving periodically, your file is gone forever.