Restore an HMI project from a USB drive without programming software

Can you restore an HMI project from a USB drive without the programming software?

Yes: two supported routes put a project on a USB drive so the panel can load it with no programming software installed, and both end the same way, with the target panel reading a prepared file set from removable media. There is no separate loader program to hand a client, so the two routes are the whole menu. Other HMI families draw the same two routes under other names: copying the compiled project to external storage on one side, and a backup-and-restore pair in the device's service settings on the other. The labels move and the structure holds. None of this replaces the programming software for editing; it moves a finished project to the machine.

Recommendation: prepare the handoff drive with the programming software's external-memory transfer whenever you hold the project source; fall back to the running panel's backup when you do not; archive one copy on a drive stored away from the panel; and treat the recovery tool as firmware repair only, never as a project loader.

What do you need before you start?

Four items cover the job: access to the project source or a running panel, a USB pen drive sized to the prepared file set, the target panel's hardware manual, and a way to move the set to the plant.

• Project access. The source, openable in the HMI software, or a panel already running the project. Either one produces the prepared set.
• A USB pen drive. Sized with roughly twice the file-set size, which leaves room for a second project and old revisions. Card media also works on families that accept a card.
• The target panel's hardware manual. In the family behind this workflow, the load-from-external-memory procedure sits at chapter 5-44.
• A transport path. For a remote plant, FTP or a courier. Email moves the set only while the whole set fits the attachment cap, about 25 MB on most business mail.

One item sits outside the restore itself: if the panel going down is also the only screen the shift watches, plan interim coverage for the floor, and an offline shop-floor signage screen can hold the notices while the HMI work happens.

Does the panel read the raw project file from the drive?

No: a drive holding only the raw project source file, the .epp file in this family, will not restore, because the panel's restore operation reads the panel-readable set that a transfer or a backup produces. Saving a project to a drive and transferring it to external memory are two different operations in the same software. The save writes the editable source; the external-memory transfer writes the set the restore expects. Other families keep the same split between the editable source and the compiled copy that travels to a USB stick or a memory card, so the habit transfers even where the file names do not. When a restore refuses, look at the drive first: a single source file means the wrong export ran, and the fix is to run the transfer again.

How do you prepare a restore drive from the programming software?

Use the software's external-memory transfer: in this family the path is File > Project Transfer > External Memory Device, with the pen drive picked as the destination, and the finished transfer leaves the panel-readable set on that drive.

1. Open the project in the HMI software.
2. Pick File > Project Transfer > External Memory Device.
3. Choose the destination. A USB pen drive is the usual pick; a hard drive or a network drive works the same way.
4. Run the transfer to completion. The destination now holds the panel-readable set.
5. Move the set to the plant: FTP or a courier in most cases, email only when the whole set fits under the attachment cap.

Move the set as one unit. A set missing files produces the same symptom as a raw source file, so compare the file count and sizes against your copy before anything ships.

How do you make a restore copy from a panel that already runs the project?

Back up from the panel that already runs the project: insert a USB pen drive in that panel, run the panel's Backup function, and copy the backup files off the drive as the handoff set.

1. Insert a USB pen drive in the running panel.
2. Run the panel's Backup function and write the project to the drive.
3. Copy the backup files off to a second drive or upload them.
4. Label the set with the project name, the revision, the date and the panel it came from.

This route earns its keep when the source project is out of reach because the software sits on a retired PC or the archive was never kept. The basics and their pitfalls are covered in the safe way to back up and restore an HMI panel project, and when the panel sits at a remote site, sending a remote HMI panel backup by email for a USB restore walks that handoff step by step.

What does a worked example of the whole handoff look like?

A machine builder ships a spare panel to a plant 400 km away with no programming software on site: the prepared file set is 140 MB, email caps out at 25 MB, so the drive itself makes the trip. The 140 MB is a scenario input; treat it as whatever your first transfer produces and rerun the same arithmetic.

• Mail check. 140 MB against a 25 MB attachment cap gives 140 ÷ 25 = 5.6 times the cap, so email is out and the set travels by FTP or courier.
• Drive check. A 16 GB pen drive holds a 140 MB set with room for revisions, comfortably past the twice-the-set rule above.
• Copy time on site. A USB 2.0 port moves 480 Mbit/s raw, which is 480 ÷ 8 = 60 MB/s at best; flash sticks stream around 35 MB/s in practice, so 140 ÷ 35 ≈ 4 seconds to place the set on the target side.
• Load. The tech inserts the drive, opens the panel's restore menu and follows the manual's load procedure. The manual publishes no duration for the load step, so time it once on the spare and keep the number.

Result: the spare panel comes up on the project, the screens match the machine, and a couple of tags read live values, with no programming software on the plant side and no loader shipped. The software-side job was one transfer, one courier label and one phone call.

How do you load the project on the target panel and check it worked?

Insert the media in the target panel, run the restore operation the hardware manual documents, chapter 5-44 in this family's manual, and confirm the check that matters: the expected project starts and talks to the controller.

1. Put the complete prepared set on the pen drive, or leave the drive exactly as the transfer or backup wrote it.
2. Insert the drive in the target panel and run the restore operation from the manual.
3. Let the restore run to the end. Pulling power part way through a write is the failure that leaves panels dead, and it is the one the recovery tool exists to repair.
4. Confirm the result: the expected project starts, the screens match the machine, and a tag or two shows live values from the controller.

Three rejections have short answers:

• The restore refuses to start. Check that the drive holds the prepared set, never the raw source file, and that the file count matches your copy.
• The drive is not seen. Test the stick in a PC, then try a second stick; testing a USB drive a panel refuses is its own short procedure.
• The restore finishes and the panel misbehaves on restart. That failure has its own checklist: a project restore that fails after reboot.

When is the recovery tool the right answer?

Only when a panel failed a firmware update: the recovery tool revives supported, later-generation panels after that failure, and a message that your panel does not support it means your panel is the earlier generation, which gets replaced. The tool's job is narrow: a later-generation panel that lost power or communications at a critical point in a firmware update can be revived; an earlier-generation panel that takes that hit is finished. Nothing in the tool loads a project, and no loader exists for this family, so a project restore always goes back through the two routes above. For hardware already dead after a failed update, documented recovery walks exist for specific machines, such as a recovery walk for a graphic operator panel that died during a failed update.

The decisions, case by case:

• Working panel, project source in hand: external-memory transfer to the drive, then restore on the target.
• Working panel, no source: backup from the running panel, then restore on the target.
• Dead panel, the trouble began in a firmware update, later generation: recovery tool first, then restore the project from your drive.
• Dead panel, the trouble began in a firmware update, earlier generation: replace the panel, then restore from your drive.
• Project lived only on the panel's internal card, CF-1 in this family, and the panel was destroyed: the copy went with the hardware. Keep the next set on a drive you can hold, away from the machine it runs.

That last case is the habit worth keeping: every finished project, in prepared form, on media you can hold.

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