data not written to spss file; where else can it be?

It happened that the data from several participants was not written to the spss file in the data folder. (I suspect this happened because I edited this spss file in spss for mac and then copied it back to the pc with medialab on it.) So, when I ran my experiment, I realized that the data from these participants was not written to the spss file, but WAS written to the excel version. However, I have about 700 variables, and the excel file is truncated. I was only able to extract some but not all of the data I need, because about 150 variable I need were not in the excel file.

is there any other "secret" place where MediaLab logs data? I would like to be able to recover the data that was not written to the spss file, if possible.

thanks!

ps. I trashed the unwritable spss file and ran a mock trial and the new spss file is created and works. but it would mean a lot to me to get the "lost" data back.

The data in the .csv file are not actually truncated--it just appears that way if you open the file(s) in Excel because it can only read 255 variables. I believe Excel 2007 can read a practically unlimited number of variables, or you can import the csv file into SPSS, as described here:

[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?t=498[/URL]

Let me know if that helps.

yes!!!!! it worked and it's one of those wonderful data RECOVERY stories!
thank you very much for you help, it saved me a good chunk of time.

Great, thank you for the update. Can you tell me which one worked--I assume it was the SPSS import method as you probably would have already tried Excel 2007 if had it. Yes?

yes, I did the export-to-spss method you linked to.
I did not have Office2007 on hand, but if the export did work, I would have found the new office version among friends / colleagues.