Desktop PC Utility USB Drive

The Desktop PC Utility USB Drive lets you perform maintenance operations on a USB-capable desktop PC with LabVIEW Real-Time installed on its hard drive.

Notes You must use a bootable USB device. You must have Administrator privileges on the host computer in order to create this utility.

Complete the following steps to create the Desktop PC Utility USB Drive from your host PC or PXI system:

1. Launch MAX by selecting Programs»National Instruments»Measurement & Automation Explorer from the Windows Start menu on the host PC.
2. Plug a USB drive into a USB port.

   Note  Close all applications and windows that access the USB drive you want to use as the Desktop PC Utility USB Drive. The USB drive must not be in use by any other processes.

3. Select Tools»RT Disk Utilities»Create Desktop PC Utility USB Drive.
4. Click Yes to confirm that you want to create the Desktop PC Utility USB Drive.
5. Select the version of the utility you want to use and click OK.
6. Select the USB drive you want to format as a Desktop PC Utility USB Drive. Click OK.

   Caution  Any data on the USB drive will be overwritten.

7. If necessary, confirm that you are aware that this operation destroys all data on the selected USB drive.

To use the Desktop PC Utility USB drive, plug it into an empty USB port on the desktop PC you use as the remote system. Power on or reset the remote desktop PC.

Note  You must set the BIOS of the computer on which you want to use the USB device to allow booting from a USB drive. Set the boot sequence to search for boot files on the USB drive first.

The Desktop PC Utility USB Drive presents six menu selections:

1. Boot using software installed on the hard-disk. Boots the system using NI Real-Time software installed on the hard drive. If there is no NI Real-Time software installed on the hard drive, the utility boots the system into safe mode to allow software to be installed.
2. Boot into safe mode.
   Boots the system into safe mode. This selection brings up the minimal set of services necessary to configure the system's network settings and to install software to the system. This mode does not utilize any installed software on the hard drive, so it is useful as a recovery mode if you are having difficulty booting the software from the hard drive.
3. Reset network configuration.
   Clears the system's IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS address. When the target is rebooted, it will automatically acquire an IP address if your target supports automatic IP assignment. If your target has an IP address of 0.0.0.0, you must reconfigure its network settings.
4. Clear password.
   Clears the system's password, if one has been set.
5. Disable LabVIEW Real-Time start-up application.
   If there is a LabVIEW Real-Time start-up application present, this selection prevents it from running when the system starts up. Once the application has been disabled, you must use the LabVIEW Real-Time development environment to reenable it.
6. Format hard disk.
   Reformats the system's hard drive to allow you to boot NI Real-Time software directly from the hard drive. This operation will destroy all data currently on the hard drive. Targets that support automatic IP address assignment will be assigned an IP address. For targets that do not support automatic IP address assignment, the first time the system boots from the hard drive after it has been formatted, it will boot into safe mode with an IP address of 0.0.0.0. You can then configure the system's network settings and install software to the hard drive.