Managing Multiple Hard Drives with Multiple PNAs

There are a couple of scenarios where hard drive maintenance is a bit out of the ordinary. This document is intended to explain how to handle these situations with a minimum of problems. These two cases are:

• Maintaining multiple hard drives for a single PNA. Typically this will occur in high security areas where a group must share the PNA with others, but also require privacy and security. This way, each group can have their own private drive.
• Maintaining a spare hard drive (or drives) for more than one PNA. This could commonly occur in a rental company or any company that has multiple PNAs where they need a spare drive to ensure continuous up-time.

Both situations require slightly different techniques which are explained below. First, one needs to understand some background information. All PNA models can share a single hard drive, assuming they all have the same CPU. At the time of this writing, there have been four different CPU assemblies. Each one requires its own version hard drive in order to ensure the proper drivers are present. The four CPUs can be identified by looking at the rear panel USB ports or, alternately, look here. Assuming the same CPU is used, it does not matter if the PNA is a 3 GHz RF model or a 67 GHz model; they both can use the same hard drive.

• A 266 MHz CPU has a single horizontally oriented USB port
• A 500 MHz CPU has a single vertically oriented USB port
• A 1.1 GHz CPU has 4 USB ports.
• A 1.6 GHz CPU has 4 USB ports. N524xA (before 10/2009)
• A 2.0 GHz CPU has 4 USB ports. N5264A and N524xA (after 10/09)

It is also helpful to know what information is unique for each instrument. Below is a list of all unique information as the PNA is shipped from the factory. Of course, logins, passwords, cal sets, saved files, and installed programs that have been added after delivery are not included here.

• gen.lic file - provides the PNA with its model number and installed options
• mxcalfiles - provides correction factors for the receiver; may consist of 2-6 files. (not used on N524xA or N5264A)
• eebudat.dat - backup file of EEPROM information
• eebudat.bak - Another backup file of EEPROM information
• Computer Name - A randomly generated name in the form "AGILENT-XXXXXXX" (for older units), or "A-N5230A-0123" for newer units.
• Agilent account password - A unique password that depends upon the serial number of the PNA. This account is not normally used, but can be useful for Agilent service personnel

As shipped, spare drives provided by Agilent have none of the above information, except for a defaulted, non-unique Agilent account password. The rest of the files are either automatically generated the first time the PNA is started, or must be manually generated. The following steps will help ensure the PNA is properly set up regardless of your configuration.

Note: Except for the N524xA and N5264A (which has mxcal files in flash memory), both procedures below require that you have a copy of the current mxcal files from the original hard drive that was shipped with your PNA(s). All files start with "mxcalfile_" and are located in C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer. Copy all files to a floppy disk and label the disk with the model and serial number of the PNA. Do this for EACH PNA you own! Alternately, and in the case of the "C" models, you can use a pen drive and place the files into individual directories named after the serial number. Remember, hard drives are CPU-speed specific and cannot be interchanged among different CPU families!

Maintaining Multiple Hard Drives for a Single PNA

In this case we will assume you want to have several hard drives that will be installed on a single PNA. This is the simpler of the two scenarios. We will also assume that you have obtained the multiple hard drives from Agilent.

1. Except for the N524xA and N5264A, make sure you have a backup copy of the mxcalfiles (see note above) for the PNA to be used.
2. Remove the original hard drive and install the spare drive. Apply power. After some initialization and several reboots, the PNA screen will appear. Newer replacement hard drive images will ask you to manually enter the model and serial number. This is used to generate the computer name and Agilent password. At this point all the above files will have already been created with the exception of the mxcalfiles.
3. Except for the N524xA and N5264A (which does not need this step), close the application and copy the all the mxcalfiles to the directory C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\   and to   D:\Calfiles\.
4. At this point, you should set up all account names, passwords, machine name (if a different one is needed from the default), network configurations, etc.

You should run the Operators Check on the PNA (System, Service, Operator's Check) to ensure all steps were properly performed.

Maintaining a Spare Hard Drive (or Drives) for Multiple PNAs

In this case we will assume you want to have one or more spare drives that can be used on multiple PNAs. This involves a bit more work than the above scenario. It also helps to have a USB hard drive enclosure designed for laptop hard drives. These handy devices (see sample) cost less than $20 and allow much faster deployment of working PNA systems. Again, we will assume that you have obtained the hard drive from Agilent.

First, make sure you have copies of all the various mxcalfiles for every PNA owned (see note above.)

If the hard drive is new and has never been used in a PNA before, simply install it in the PNA, turn it on, allow it to initialize, and copy the proper mxcalfiles from your backup media to the directory: C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer. Close, then restart the PNA application. At this point, you are done. The below steps are only needed if the hard drive has previously been used in a PNA.

1. Insert the hard drive into the PNA or USB enclosure. If installed into the PNA, the actual PNA application will not run properly, so close it as soon as it appears.
2. You must delete the following files. Remember, if you are using a USB enclosure, the drive letters will be different!
   • C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\gen.lic   Delete this file; do NOT just rename it!
   • Any file named pnacalsets.dat or pnacalsets3.dat in C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\ (if it exists)
   • All files that start with "mxcalfile_" in C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\
   • All files in C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\UserCalSets\
   • All files in C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer\CalRegisters\
   • All files in D:\Calfiles
3. If you wish to keep this drive available for any other compatible PNAs in the future, stop here, you are done! Once the individual PNA has been identified, you will still need to perform the next 4 steps.
4. Assuming you have identified the specific PNA to be used, copy the correct mxcalfiles for this instrument into the directory C:\Program Files\Agilent\Network Analyzer (not needed for N5242A.)
5. If not already done, install the hard drive into the PNA. Allow it to fully power up and make sure the PNA application is running properly.
6. If used in a networked environment, and depending upon the previous PNA's computer name, you may need to change it so it does not conflict with another PNA. Right-click on My Computer, click on Properies, Computer Name, Change. Enter a new, unique computer name.
7. The Agilent account password should be changed to correspond to the serial number. If you know that the previous password was at its default value and you don't care about this, then you can skip this step, otherwise, note the serial number of the PNA. On the following link, there are instructions on how to change the Agilent account password. Follow those instructions. Set up the Agilent administrator password

You should run the Operators Check on the PNA (System, Service, Operator's Check) to ensure all steps were properly performed.

By using multiple hard drives, you can easily switch between Windows 2000 and XP. However, XP requires an updated BIOS. If you have any PNA that is running Windows 2000, you should update the BIOS. This will not affect Windows 2000 systems, but it will allow XP to operate properly if ever installed. The BIOS update disk can be found here. This self-extracting executable will create a BIOS update floppy. Instructions are included. The update only takes a minute to install.