Whenever possible, supervisors should talk with the person who is leaving their position to determine what data is important to retain and where it is located. This should include email, contacts, and any mailbox ownership they may have had.
Sometimes it will be necessary to acquire the data from a previous employee’s computer after they have left the University. The easiest way to transfer the data is to copy it to external media, such as a blank CD or a flash drive.
While the location of stored documents depends entirely on how the previous computer user organized their files, there are two locations where people generally store their files:
On a PC
Start by looking in the My Documents folder. A shortcut for My Documents can usually be found in the Start menu. Many people also save documents in folders on their Desktop, so be sure to look there. If you do not find what you are looking for in these two locations, try searching the entire hard drive for the document type, such as .xls or .doc.
On a Mac
Start by looking in the Documents folder. An alias for the Documents folder can usually be found in the left sidebar after double-clicking the hard drive icon. Also look for folders or documents left on the Desktop. If you do not find what you are looking for in these two locations, try searching the entire hard drive for the document type, such as .xls or .doc.