How to backup a complete system running labview 2009 after a catistrophic failure?

[CNMD_RussP]

I am new to the forum and completely new to labview as well. I am familiar with PLC based systems. We have transferred a couple of machines to our location from another and I want to be able to restore them to running condition if something goes wrong. They are operable now. What would be the best way to back them up for future recovery? Thanks in advance for your suggestions and or solutions.

They are running Labview 2009.

Operating sytem is Windows 7.

[Sam_Sharp]

What hardware are you running? Is it just a PC or do you have other targets like PXI/cRIO running RT/FPGA?

If it's just a PC then you'll need to back up the application software, any configuration files used by the software and any data files.

If it's RT/FPGA - I suggest looking at the Replication and Deployment Utility - you can use it to create an image of an RT target which you can then later restore.

[jcarmody]

Image the hard drive then put that image onto another hard drive.  Swap the drives to make sure that the new/imaged drive works.  Swap back, or not. 

Remember, if you don't test your backups, you can't be sure you have one.

[CNMD_RussP]

Sam,

The only hardware I see connected to the PC running LabVIEW is a Hi-Speed USB Carrier NI USB-9162 with a NI9213 16 CH 24-Bit Thermocouple Input.

[CNMD_RussP]

jcarmody,

That is what my original thoughts were for a backup solution. I am glad to see someone else agrees. And you are absolutely correct about the testing part!!! I have seen other test after the failure and the backup or supposed to be repaired item does not work.....

[billko]

I'd recommend a baseline backup every week with incrementals every day.  Probably have two or three rotations so you have a few weeks of backups to choose from.  For hardware, I'd recommend some kind of data redundancy.  At least a mirror, preferably some kind of RAID 5 array.

The backups protect against "I accidentally formatted my hard drive" while the data redundancy protects against "my hard drive just died."