Chapter 2
Installation and Configuration
©
National Instruments Corporation
2-17
Hard Drive Recovery
NI PXI-8184/8185 controllers include Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
Firstware tools, either Recover or Vault, or both. These tools allow you
to recover the original factory condition of the hard disk from a small
protected area of your hard drive. This protected area contains an image of
the hard disk provided to you at the time of shipment. Should you need to
restore your software to its original condition, you can access that image
by pressing a hot key during the initial boot process. For more information
regarding these tools, refer to the documentation on your hard drive in the
c:\Images\Firstware
directory.
Note
Your system hot key is <Alt>. To access the Phoenix Firstware Recover tool, press
and hold <Alt> when video first appears during the boot process.
If you need to recover your factory-installed operating system from a CD,
you can use the included OS installation CD with an external CD-ROM
drive such as a USB CD-ROM drive. Boot the PXI controller using the
OS installation CD to recover the OS. You also may need to reinstall other
software after using the CD to recover the OS.
Note
Recovering the OS using Firstware or the recovery CD erases the contents of your
hard disk. Back up any files you want to keep.
Installing an OS
NI PXI-8184/8185 controllers include a preinstalled OS. In some cases,
you may want to reinstall the OS or install a different OS. When doing so,
consider the following guidelines.
Installing from a CD-ROM
The NI PXI-8184/8185 supports the installation of Windows XP from a
USB CD-ROM. However, many other operating systems do not support
installation from a USB CD-ROM. For example, Windows 2000 aborts
during the install process because it does not have drivers for the CD-ROM
device.
With DOS drivers, you can install Windows 9
x
operating systems.
However, only a few USB CD-ROM drives have DOS drivers.
As an alternative to a USB CD-ROM drive, you can use an external SCSI
CD-ROM with a PXI-SCSI adapter.
