VersaView Repair or Replacement?

I have a VersaView 1500P (6181-15TSXP Series E) that has a failed hard drive (2.5 inch SATA). I could get a new hard drive for it. Although, I do not know how much work I'm going to have to put into it, to get it back to running my MER file.


Do you think I could just use a new PanelView Plus? Or do you think I should try to get this VersaView going with a new hard drive?


I found the boxes of disks that came with some older VersaViews around here. There is a VersaView System Support CD, an AB System Cloning Utility CD, and a pack of 5 AB Windows XP Pro Embedded CDs.



It's running RSView ME 4.00


I was going to use Acronis to image another unit here. But, all the other VersaViews are an older style with an IDE hard drive. This particular unit has a SATA drive in it. It's a newer model 1500P (6181-15TSXP Series E).


So, I'm thinking a direct image of the older unit may not be a good choice on the newer model.


Any insights are welcome.

An image from a new machine with a different motherboard HDD is not going to do you any good. If you're going to repair the old computer, get a replacement hard drive and use those support CD's to see if you can do a fresh OS install.

Why do you figure that the original builders used a VersaView instead of a PV+ ? They must have had a reason to want Windows XP instead of Windows CE, and access to the desktop and the rest of the OS>

You'll need to figure out the licensing from the old machine and see if you can get it re-activated. There was nothing special about the VersaView architecture that activates FactoryTalk View; you need an activation like on any other computer.

What are your HMI needs? Do you need PC functions? Meaning does it run another application other than FT View? If not I would upgrade to a panelview personally and reduce some headaches.

It would just be a matter of upgrading the application which would be better if you have the .apa file somewhere but can be done with the .mer file depending on the complexity of the application.

On that model, the recovery partition was on the HD in a hidden partition. When it was installed someone should have taken a ghost image of the machine out of the box (Best practice) before anything was installed on it or made a backup of the recovery partition.

If you have active Rockwell support you may be able to get an image from them mailed out to you on a DVD or something but I doubt it because there have been many changes in Windows licensing in recent years that may have an impact on how far Rockwell can support a situation as you have.

The only option I would lay on the table for the "The Powers that be" would be upgrade to panelview or a new versaview or new non-Rockwell brand panel pc.