How do I get the data?

If you're using the VSO's Web Interface, you should first search for data products that you wish to download.

You should then select which of the data products you wish to retrieve, by clicking the checkboxes next to the items in the list.

If you wish to select a large block of items, you can use the Checkbox Tools to select or unselect large ranges of items. You can sort the items by any of the columns available, to help group items of interest.

Once you have selected the items, you can click on the 'Request Data' button in the lower left of the screen.

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You will be presented with a list of the data transfer methods? available from the DataProvider?. Some transfer methods will require additional information, such as the STAGING? class of methods, which require time to complete, and will then notify you when the files are ready.

You can then press the button 'Request Data'

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You will be taken to a page with the status of the data request.

If you have requested URL? type methods, there should be links to download the data products, which you can either control-click to download to disk, or right-click, if you have a multi-button mouse. (or whatever you typically do to download files that are linked to, in the browser you are currently using)

For those items that will take some time to complete, the data provider will return a message to indicate the time frame in which you should expect a response. The data provider will contact you via e-mail with the tasks to obtain the data you have requsted. (Note -- the time frames given are typically worst case scenarios, so don't be alarmed if it says two days, or something similar -- some data providers store their data near-line, and they may have to retrieve a tape from their archives, or other tasks that require human intervention.)

You can use the 'Track Your Request' link on the left tool bar, to give you a bookmarkable page so that you can come back to this page later. (Note -- although we will make every effort to retain all information, we suggest that if the list of links is extremely important to you, that you save the page to your local system)

Occassionally, there will be an error message presented. The message should explain what the nature of the problem is. If you feel that it wasn't, please contact Joe Hourclé with the Cart ID? (on the top of the screen), so that he can look into the problem.