DirectRT is not creating a destination folder for data files (case 11400)

Hello, I am wondering if anybody can help. I have used DirectRT to run many studies and this week I encountered a strange problem. Usually when I run directRT (we have version 2012 on campus), it automatically creates a destination folder for the data. One one day it made the destination folder completely fine (and saved all data), but on the next day it did not. Therefore, a number of studies were run, but because a destination folder was not made, data were not recorded.

The strange thing is - this happens [I]only[/I] when the study is run from a networked drive as opposed to a local drive on the PC. On the local drive the destination folder [I]is [/I]created and the data are recorded, on the network drive the folder is not created (and data are not saved).

I have tested this on a number of different network accounts, and therefore it is not due to a problem with an individual network user account. I have also tested this with a number of different input files that have previously been used to (successfully) collect data on networked drives. What also is strange is that when you create the destination folder yourself (so that it has the same name as the input file, as DirectRT usually does it) - the data [I]are[/I] saved on the networked drive.

The problem therefore seems to be with DirectRT having issues creating destination folders for data on networked drives as opposed to local drives. This is a problem that I have never encountered; I have always run studies from networked drives!

Some advice on what is going on would be kindly appreciated.

When you run DirectRT, are you using it alone or in conjunction with MediaLab? And when you experience the problem of no data folder on the networked drives, are all of the DirectRT program files located in a single folder?

Hi Jason, I am using directRT alone, and all of the files are located in a single folder.

Did the data recording problems on network drives happen before or after you started to create your own folder for the data? And what did you name these folders you created for the data?

The problem started before I created the folder - essentially within my directRT folder I have two input files for two different conditions saved on the network drive. On one day of data collection I ran one condition and directRT automatically saved all the data in a folder with the same name as the condition as would be expected. On the next day I ran the other condition and I went to get the data but there was no folder for that condition and no data.

So today to see if I could get any data saved, I made a new folder in the "data folder". This folder had the same name as the input file that previously failed to save. After I had done this, the data saved if you ran the study again.

However, on a non networked drive the folder for the data was automatically created by directRT in the way you would expect.

I also tested this again with previous studies of mine that just had one condition and therefore one input file, and the same thing happened - no automatically created data folder and file on the network (when the study was run from the networked drive), an automatically created data folder and file on local (when the study wad run from the local drive).

The data recording issues could be related to running more than one input file and expect them to write to a single data folder. The two different input files that you call conditions could have written to the same data folder if they used the same stimuli and you used the same number more than once for a subject ID. Was this the case for what you did?

Hi, that was not the case - the study had different participant numbers for each the different input files (i.e., conditions). And DirectRT makes separate data folders for each of the different input files (usually). As I said, the issue is that five days ago, DirectRT automatically created the destination folders for the input files - a day later this did not happen (this only occurs on the networked drives as opposed to local drives - therefore it is nothing to do with how my experiment is set up, this is to do with DirectRT not functioning as it should for some reason).

Are you still experiencing this problem with DirectRT not creating data folders?