Spire software - fallen over again.....

[dwyers]

Our Spire 6000 rip seems to suffer from a 12 monthly cycle of dying suddenly.

Last year we had it suddenly stop wanting to color manage the files we pass through it and we ended up having to have the tech completely format and reinstall the OS and the Spire software.

It has just happened again - we noticed a few days ago that color had gone off what it should be and spoke to technician from Xerox who suggested new parts in the machine itself which did nothing to the color, then they suggested that we format the image disks (temp space used by SPIRE) and we did so to have the software completely refuse to run any data across to the Xerox.

It seems to me that there should be a proper backup and re-installation option on these rips so that we can back to work quicker - like notebooks come with.

Also they should not be so temperamental as we don't do anything else on the rip except run files from Prinergy to Xerox.

I am going to have to open the rip up and put in a backup hard drive so that when it is all back up and running we can clone the drive and get a working copy for when it falls over next time.

[robert.hammen]

Is this a Windows box? When it's working, can you use something like Ghost or Acronis TrueImage to make a copy of the drive? That way you just need to log any changes you make in an ongoing basis, so you can re-apply them if you need to re-copy from your backup...

[dwyers]

Yes thats a good idea...

Pity the software wont stay up on its own though.

Dennis.

[Chris Hamilton]

We have also had this happen with our spire. Reformat and reinstall about every 3-4 months. I agree, Xerox seems to have no concept of backing-up. I am curious how you have set up Prinergy to send to the spire - we've been playing with our setup, but it seems it could be better. Would you mind contacting me off-forum to talk about your workflow? chris@paragonpress.com.

[dwyers]

Well it seems there is a very good setup within the Kodak spire install disks that allows the use of Ghost to backup the C & D drives to DVD media.

I take it all back.

I will be doing the backup as soon as i have the Rip set up correctly.

I had to get the secret password from the Xerox tech to be able to read the notes on installation and it is covered.

Thanks, Dennis Wyers.