Back up your Racepak logs

MOTORSPORTS Innovations · 01-30-2017, 12:43 PM

It's pretty common for me to get a call with the racer saying his laptop was lost or damaged and he lost all his runs from the previous season(s). Almost same scenario if he's purchased a new laptop just because.

Building a new configuration & software installation on the new laptop is easy, but if he doesn't have the run logs backed up he's really lost VERY valuable information.

Here is a link to a procedure (Adobe PDF) to backup your logs to a inexpensive thumb drive. This will protect you if your laptop goes belly-up and only takes a few minutes. An additional easy step is to copy the logs to a home or office desktop computer for reference.

http://www.motorsportsinnovations.co...p%20how-to.pdf

Give me a call with any questions Greg Kelley 609-265-2110

Thanks to Jim & Joe Schaechter for helping with the testing/editing.

FireSale · 01-30-2017, 01:18 PM

To extend this a bit, get an inexpensive external hard drive and set your laptop up to run a full backup every time it is connected. When you get home from the track, hook it up and go to bed. If the laptop crashes or is stolen you have a full backup of everything except what went on it when it was disconnected.

My other hobby is photography. We keep three backups of our photos. One on the desktop, one in a drawer and one off site to protect against user error, theft and fire.

Mike Mans · 01-30-2017, 05:21 PM

Great PSA for everyone Greg. I did a bit of thinking about the same topic last fall and set up a Dropbox account for all of our racing information to be backed up on. Racepak logs, Fuel Injection tune files, CrewChief Data, and everything else on our racing laptop. This way no matter where I am or what happens to our laptop, I can always pull all of our data right from "the cloud" onto a PC in a hurry and get us back in action. And it helps when I'm at home during the week and decide I want to look at some data files, but the racing laptop is in our race shop - now I can just pull it all right from that Dropbox on ANY computer.

Obviously this does require internet connection to the PC/laptop in use, and we do always have that at the track now days. But if you had no internet connection - I would highly suggest a flashdrive approach as well.

Mike Mans

01-30-2017, 12:43 PM	#1
MOTORSPORTS Innovations Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Hainesport, NJ Posts: 123 Likes: 0 Liked 15 Times in 2 Posts	Back up your Racepak logs It's pretty common for me to get a call with the racer saying his laptop was lost or damaged and he lost all his runs from the previous season(s). Almost same scenario if he's purchased a new laptop just because. Building a new configuration & software installation on the new laptop is easy, but if he doesn't have the run logs backed up he's really lost VERY valuable information. Here is a link to a procedure (Adobe PDF) to backup your logs to a inexpensive thumb drive. This will protect you if your laptop goes belly-up and only takes a few minutes. An additional easy step is to copy the logs to a home or office desktop computer for reference. http://www.motorsportsinnovations.co...p%20how-to.pdf Give me a call with any questions Greg Kelley 609-265-2110 Thanks to Jim & Joe Schaechter for helping with the testing/editing. __________________ MOTORSPORTS Innovations www.motorsportsinnovations.com

01-30-2017, 01:18 PM	#2
FireSale VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Lakewood Washington Posts: 1,407 Likes: 29 Liked 237 Times in 126 Posts	Re: Back up your Racepak logs To extend this a bit, get an inexpensive external hard drive and set your laptop up to run a full backup every time it is connected. When you get home from the track, hook it up and go to bed. If the laptop crashes or is stolen you have a full backup of everything except what went on it when it was disconnected. My other hobby is photography. We keep three backups of our photos. One on the desktop, one in a drawer and one off site to protect against user error, theft and fire. __________________ Dale Shearon 68 Mustang 6394

01-30-2017, 05:21 PM	#3
Mike Mans Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 177 Likes: 21 Liked 299 Times in 48 Posts	Re: Back up your Racepak logs Great PSA for everyone Greg. I did a bit of thinking about the same topic last fall and set up a Dropbox account for all of our racing information to be backed up on. Racepak logs, Fuel Injection tune files, CrewChief Data, and everything else on our racing laptop. This way no matter where I am or what happens to our laptop, I can always pull all of our data right from "the cloud" onto a PC in a hurry and get us back in action. And it helps when I'm at home during the week and decide I want to look at some data files, but the racing laptop is in our race shop - now I can just pull it all right from that Dropbox on ANY computer. Obviously this does require internet connection to the PC/laptop in use, and we do always have that at the track now days. But if you had no internet connection - I would highly suggest a flashdrive approach as well. Mike Mans Last edited by Mike Mans; 01-30-2017 at 05:24 PM. Reason: Added more.