Recommendations for Computer Maintenance for Analyst® Software

For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Answer

Maintaining the API Instrument project is important for the proper running of Analyst® software.

Analyst software's API Instrument project folder (D://Analyst Data/Projects/API Instrument) contains more subfolders than other Analyst project folders. The API Instrument folder is the project where your instrument's hardware configurations (Configuration\*.hwpf files), calibration and resolution settings (the Instrument Data\Instrumentdata.ins file), and parameter settings (the Parameter Settings\Paramsettingsdef.psf file) are stored. These files are essential for the proper functioning of both Analyst software and your instrument.

In the API instrument directory, there is a folder called Tuning Cache, which is where the data generated when you hit Start in Manual Tune is collected. If you do much work in Manual Tune, this directory can get quite large, and it should be emptied periodically. These files contain an MT (e.g.,  MT20040609083030.wiff), which stands for Manual Tune, and the remainder of the file name is time stamp in the format yyyymmddhhmmss. During the tuning process, if you obtain a nice spectrum that you wish you had acquired as a data file in your project (rather than just hitting Start), you can copy the resulting file from the tuning cache to your project’s data folder and then rename it.

Other Windows Upkeep
Analyst (along with every other Windows program) suffers from something called memory leak in that repeated openings and closings of the program will eventually eat up all of the RAM in the computer. To keep this from happening, the only remedy is to reboot the computer. If Analyst is being opened and closed frequently, it is probably a good idea to reboot daily.

Defragmenting the hard drives should be done on a monthly basis to improve the computer’s speed. Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Window 7 have built-in defragmenting software. Windows NT does not.

Analyst also generates a large number of *.tmp an *.emf files which are stored in your TEMP directory (more to follow on how to set up a good location for this directory). These do not automatically get purged and you will have to do this. It is recommended that the *.tmp and *.wmf files in the TEMP directory be cleaned out at least weekly.

Limit the data folder size to less than 1 gigaByte.