The catastrophe was that when the computer containing the files failed, I was
left with a useless shortcut on the other one, when I thought I had two
month's work.
And I am _not_ telling the computer to "paste shortcut". I'm telling it to
"paste", and it doesn't. It goes ahead and sabotages me on its own
initiative. It doesn't tell me it's doing something totally different from
what I asked for. I cannot think of a much more dangerous flaw.
When I try and drag the files from "My network places" to "my computer", as
you suggest, it won't. I get the "no entry" sign.
Meanwhile, however, I have found the answer. The folder was set for
sharing, and with permission for files to be altered, but it was NOT in the
"shared documents" folder (not needing to be, on a computer with only one
account). Placing it in that folder did enable me to copy it to another
computer.
So all's well ... However, I can't imagine how anyone could design a system
that allowed you to think you had backed up when you hadn't.
I don't think the danger is widely appreciated. After the catastrophe I
spent an hour on the phone with MS technical support sorting out other folder
permissions issues, and they were unable to suggest any explanation as to why
copy-and-pasting had resulted instead in the creation of a mere shortcut.
Incidentally, in case anyone in MS reads these pages, the shortcut in the
"notification of replies" email consistently takes me to an empty window.
