Universal Laser owner FYI

[Mike Lassiter]

First the reason for this came about when the hard drive on my laptop used to run the laser and embroidery machine died. I have a HP Home Server that all my files are backed up to shared between the laptop in the shop and our desktop in our house.

I have had to buy another computer to run the laser on, which came with Windows 7 where I had Windows XP on the laptop.

Those of you using the VLS,PLS, and ILS machines are familiar with the fact that the files sent to the laser driver are stored on the computer and used by the laser driver being sent to the laser when you run them.

I've had to reinstall programs, but of course the files the laser driver processed were saved on the laptop. So when I installed the laser driver software, those files were not there for the driver to use. I have backups done daily automatically to the server so I knew I had those files, but didn't know where they were located. I emailed Universal Laser asking for help as to their location, and was able to copy them back to my new computer. You should consider writing this information down and copying your files to safe media in case you have this problem too. Here is what I have learned:

From Darryl Morton at ULS - the folder (for my ILS series laser) for the files the laser driver saves to is:

Windows XP - C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ULSILS

I ASSUME if you have a VLS or PLS series you need to look at ULSVLS or ULSPLS as the ending folder in the above. I had over 200 files within the laser driver that made over 509 MB of data and over 750 files I believe in the folder. I believe there are 3 files in the folder for each in the laser driver, and you will know you have found them when you see all the files in the folder with a file extension of "tmp". These are the files your laser driver has saved to the computer you are running the laser from.

My problem was I now have a Window 7 64bit computer. The above folder was not created when I installed the laser driver on the new computer. I had to send something from Corel to the laser driver and search thru the folders to find where they belong in Windows 7 because the above Windows XP folder didn't exist on my Windows 7 computer.

In Windows 7 the folder the files are placed in (on my computer anyway) was:
C:\ProgramData\ULSILS

I copied the files from the backup on the server to this folder on my new computer and they now appear in the laser driver.

Even with the files backed up they wouldn't be any use to you if you don't know where they need to placed if you have the same situation as I did.
Thanks to Universal Laser (Ed & Darryl) for the assist. I felt the rest of you should know this so you could be prepared before it happens.

[Garrett Nors]

Interesting, I would have thought they'd have been in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local

[Robert Walters]

Interesting, I would have thought they'd have been in C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local

Technically, (if scripting) it be:

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\*blah*

or

%HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%\*blah*

or

%USERPROFILE%\*blah*


But if you are doing backups, it's best to just backup:

%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings\

after you have cleared out the Temp folder.

[Amy Shelton]

I have an old XP laptop I use exclusively for laser work, and I know one day I'll have to upgrade.
Thanks for sharing the info!

[Kevin Baker]

From ULS Tech Support:

They are stored in a proprietary database - the individual files are not accessible but you can copy the entire database to save all the jobs. I am not sure where they are in win7 but in winXP they are here:

C:\Program Files\ULSdb Copy & save the entire contents of that folder to backup your database.

Also, you can save the individual files as .emf files.

[Mike Lassiter]

From ULS Tech Support:

They are stored in a proprietary database - the individual files are not accessible but you can copy the entire database to save all the jobs. I am not sure where they are in win7 but in winXP they are here:

C:\Program Files\ULSdb Copy & save the entire contents of that folder to backup your database.



I'm wondering why I shared my findings when it seems even though I have already "been there done that"; I don't know what I'm talking about.:mad:
Everyone, the information I originally posted was what worked when my laptop died, and I had to recover backed up files to the new computer that has Windows 7 on it. Here is the email from ULS in reply to my request for help regarding where the files are located in Windows XP. You will note that I have the ILS series laser and that is why I guess the folder name is ULSILS.

Mike,
This should help. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ULSILS

Regards,
Darryl

Universal Laser Systems Inc.
16008 North 81st. Street
Scottsdale, AZ. 85260
Tel: 480.609.0297
Fax: 480.609.1203

They did not provide me the folder for Window 7, I had to locate it myself. As the computer was brand new with few folders I was able to locate the folder by sending a file to the laser driver from Corel Draw, then looking in the folders until I found it. That was why I thought it important to share with you all. Now someone else has encountered the problem without backed up files. Not to seem insensitive to the problem; as it is too late for him to save his files - it is NOT too late for the rest of you to do it and have a backup BEFORE trouble strikes. I was fortunate that I did have my files backed up, and able to copy them back. But again as I already said once - if you don't know what folder to put them in so the laser driver will find them they aren't much help.

[Mike Lassiter]

Here is a screen print of the folder the laser driver files where in on my Windows XP laptop computer. You will note this was pulled from the server file backup and shows drive "x" but would be drive "c" normally. 754 files in this folder and you are only able to see part of them due to doing a screen snapshot to insert here.

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