Mark V HMI back up

S

Thread Starter

shyam

How can i get the or take the back up of the mark 5 control system having Windows NT based HMI? Anybody can explain the step, one by one?
 
This can be very easy (depending on your familiarization with PKZip and command-line programs) or very difficult. It also depends greatly on the type of removable media you have available (working floppy disk drive; working CD writer; etc.).

When you say "...back up of the mark 5 [sic] control system..." what exactly are you trying to back up? The entire hard drive of the GE Mark V HMI, including WinNT and CIMPLICITY and the associated Mark V files and programs?

Or are you just trying to back-up the Mark V-specific files, not including the CIMPLICITY files?

My best suggestion would be to find a hard drive that can be installed in the CPU enclosure (usually there is an unused IDE connector and power supply to which a hard drive can be connected). Then you could just copy everything from the main hard drive to this back-up hard drive (including WinNT, CIMPLICITY, and all the Mark V-related files--and configurations). There are still some programs available which can "ghost" hard drive images which run on WinNT (or so I'm told--you'd have to find one yourself). The key thing when doing this is that TCI and CIMPLICITY <b>MUST</b> be stopped--or the procedure will fail.

Perhaps if you could describe, in detail, what exactly you are trying to do (since you're asking for a "cook-book" (step-by-step) procedure) it would be most helpful to us. It would also be helpful if you described the working removable media available, <b>and</b> if PKZip v. 2.04g is available somewhere on the hard drive, or if you have a "ghosting" application which runs on WinNT or can find one and install it on the hard drive.

Without understanding exactly what you're trying to do, and what resources you have available, it's very difficult to tell you what to do and how to do it. "Back-up" can mean different things to different people; help us to help you by being more specific.

Also, it's very helpful if you are knowledgeable about and capable of deleting unnecessary files (such as left-over VIEWn data files; old screen capture files; old back-up files and directories) as these can take a lot of space and greatly increase the size of back-ups. So, tell us how capable and comfortable you are with finding and deleting unnecessary files before beginning the back-up.

You would still do best to "image" or "ghost" the entire hard drive (providing you can find a suitable hard drive these days--older IDE-compatible hard drives are getting very difficult to find) so that you can just substitute the new hard drive for the old one in case if fails--even if that's not exactly what you're trying to do, it's still a prudent guard against hard drive failure/file corruption.

GE used to use Norton Ghost, but have recently switched to some other application--but I'm not sure if it will work on WinNT machines.

If GE or someone else is asking you to provide a "back-up" for upgrading to a new HMI or turbine control system, they should be able to tell you exactly what they want--if not exactly how to get it (step-by-step procedure(s)). But, again--if you would be more specific about what you're trying to accomplish we can definitely try to be more helpful.

Write back with the requested information (even if you feel it's not relevant!) and we'll do our best to help.
 
I just remembered: Acronis was, at least until very recently, being used with great success by GE and a lot of GE Mark V HMI operators and technicians for backing-up hard drives, both to other hard drives and to removable media (CDs, DVDs, etc.).

But, you would have to find something that's compatible with WinNT and hopefully have a working optical drive (CD) with writing capability.

Hope this helps!
 
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