Campbell Scientific PC400 Datalogger Support Software - Manual (Page 23)

Section 3. Installation, Operation and Backup Procedures
the computer suffers some other hardware failure that prevents access to the
stored data on the disk.
The maximum interval for backing up data files depends primarily on the
amount of data maintained in the datalogger memory. The datalogger’s final
storage is configured as ring memory that will overwrite itself once the storage
area or table is full. If the data is backed up more often than the oldest records
in the datalogger are overwritten, a complete data record can still be maintained
by restoring the data from the backup and then re-collecting the newest records
from the datalogger.
3.2.2.1
3.2.2.2
Performing a Backup
PC400 provides a simple way to back up the network map, the PC400 data
cache, and the initialization files for each of the applications. The network map
will restore all settings and data collection pointers for the dataloggers and other
devices in the network. The data cache is the binary database which contains
the collected data from the datalogger. Initialization files store settings such as
window size and position, configuration of the data display, etc.
From PC400’s menu, choose Network | Backup/Restore Network, and then
press Backup.
The backup file is named PC400.bkp and is stored in the
C:\CampbellSci\PC400 directory (if you installed PC400 using the default
directory structure). You can, however, provide a different file name if
desired.
Restoring the Network from a Backup File
To restore a network from a backup file, choose Network | Backup/Restore
Network. Select the *.bkp file that contains the network configuration you
want to restore, and press Restore. Note that this process DOES NOT append
to the existing network — the existing network will be overwritten when the
restore is performed.
3.2.3 Loss of Computer Power
The PC400 communications server writes to several files in the \SYS directory
during normal operations. The most critical files are the data cache table files
and the network configuration files. The data cache files contain all of the data
that has been collected from the dataloggers by the PC400 server. These files
are kept open (or active) as long as data is being stored to the file.
The configuration files contain information about each device in the datalogger
network, including collection schedules, device settings, and other parameters.
These files are written to frequently to make sure that they reflect the current
state and configuration of each device. The configuration files are only opened
as needed.
If computer system power is lost while the PC400 server is writing data to the
active files, the files can become corrupted, making the files inaccessible to the
server.
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