I was doing a recording session yesterday and decided to use a Take Lane for a second take for the singer, but wanted to keep the original voice track.  When I selected a Take Lane for that track it appeared but the original track was empty.  I deleted the Take Lane but the original track remained empty. 
 
Fortunately, I had saved the song before trying the take lane so I was able to recover from the saved file. 
 
Probably something I'm doing as I don't usually use Take Lanes.

if you set the recording mode to comping, which it is by default then always select the track to record. take lanes are added automatically.
 
 
 

I've always used overwrite.  Is there a way to use the take lanes without having to change recording mode.

When you open the take lanes in a track that has one take, the first take lane is the original recording. It follows that if you delete that take lane you have deleted the original recording.
 
All you need to do is insure you were in comping or sound on sound (not overwrite) and record, new lanes will be created as you go.

to be honest, i really cannot see a reason to ever use overwrite again..as comp mode is effectively overwrite with automatic saves of prior takes.
When you do a second take in comp mode, the first take is muted and is dropped down a take lane. The most recent take appears in the track. With this method all takes are automatically saved...ie without actually doing anything proactive.
 
so..
Set record mode to comping by right clicking on the record button and making the selection. 
Arm a track, record it. The track shows your recording as it should. Come back to this track some other time and decide you want a second take?.. arm the track and record. The original recording is now take 1 and you commence recording take 2. upon completion take 2 now shows in the track window and take 1 is simply moved down.
 
the reference manual is a good read for this.

I'm thick headed when it comes to take lanes.  When they first came out, I read articles, youtube videos on how to use them and was still lost.  I've mostly ignored them because of that.  I'm fairly computer savvy (I'm a retired PC geek) and can usually grasp things without problems but I seem to have a mental block with take lanes and the reason I've mostly ignored them.
 
BTW, Overwrite was set as default.  I never set it or changed it. 
 
UPDATE:  I just checked my Windows 8.1 installation, which was a new install, not an added as I have with Windows 7, and the default is "overwrite". 

fireberd
UPDATE:  I just checked my Windows 8.1 installation, which was a new install, not an added as I have with Windows 7, and the default is "overwrite". 

The default was overwrite for me too.
 
I agree with the post above that overwrite should never be needed.  With comping mode, it is very easy to delete the takes you really can't use at all.  I'd much rather explicitly take the action to purge those takes instead of allowing overwrite to delete them automatically.