Hung sessions, missing files or drives

You get the login prompt and your password works, but when you log in your session looks wrong, or hangs, or you can't access files or drives which you usually can. Or you are working happily for a while and then your session freezes or goes wrong.

These glitches can be very annoying, and should be reported to help@maths if they recur. However, isolated problems of this nature can sometimes be resolved without asking for help.

If you are very close to your quota, strange problems may occur because the computer cannot write files when it needs to. Check the quota applet to see if this is your problem, and see the quota page for information on cutting down.

• If you accidentally deleted some files (as opposed to the computer failing to find your home directory / N: drive), see the backup documentation.
• If you're not sure which subdirectory you stored a file in, see the page on locating mislaid files.

Windows

Try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete, selecting the Task Manager and killing processes which are not responding. If that doesn't work you'll need to reboot the computer. If you notice that your Windows machine keeps hanging or losing its drives, please report it to help@maths.