Formatting of controllers is no longer an option after 2012SP1?

[Mads]

After installing 2012 SP1f1 I am no longer able to right-click RT targets (in this case cFP-2220s) and format them, as I previously was able to do by following this procedure.

The whole option seems to have disappeared. I can log in on the controller, install software on it etc. so the access to do things is definitely there, but I wish to wipe old files from the device and for that I would like to use the format function...

[Texas_Diaz]

Hmmm, that seems like a mistake somewhere.  Can you tell me exactly which version of MAX you're using?  You can find that in the Help->About menu.  You'll be looking at the bottom of the pop-up, my version, for example, is 5.4.0f0.

To my knowledge, there are only a couple very specific situations where you would not be allowed to format targets:

1. If the system is considered as an RT Desktop system (this can also happen if you format the target with the RT PC Desktop USB Utilities disk).  However, the cFP-2220 runs on VxWorks (PPC) whereas the RT PC Desktop USB Utilities disk is specific to PharLap (x86) systems.  In this case, the Format option is not even present.
2. Some targets have a physical lockout where the system must be in Safe Mode (via the Safe Mode DIP Switch) in order to be able to format the specific drive.  For those targets, MAX would either gray out the option or just not have the option present.
3. If the password is set on the target, MAX would not allow you to format.  I BELIEVE that in this case the format options would still be present, but you would get prompts for the password before being allowed to do so.

If you can SEE the target in MAX, that means the detection mechanism is present but it's possible the default plugin for the cFP-2220 was messed up in your MAX mxremote.ini file.  You can find the file in:

Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\MAX\INI\mxremote.ini

Make sure there are two sections listed in your mxremote.ini file (there may be other things listed in these sections, but these tokens are most important):

[Remote Devices]

72B4="Fieldpoint RT"

[72B4]
DeviceCode=72B4
DeviceName="FieldPoint RT"
MXSClass=4E638422-151F-469E-A30C-7F8E3B069D9B
ProductCode="{B67A27C7-CF6C-4FFC-A104-41D8F527ED65}"
ProductName="NI FieldPoint MAX Provider 6.1"
ProductVersion="6.1.9"

Of course the ProductVersion and ProductName will depend on the version of the Fieldpoint drivers you have installed, but it's important that these fields are present - MAX uses these to determine how to "treat" the Fieldpoint devices, and what they can and cannot show.  

-Danny

[Mads]

I ended up deleting all the controllers from the list in MAX, then redetecting them...that got back the format disk-option...For the record, the sections and keys in my mxremote-file is as follows:

[Remote Devices]

72B4="FieldPoint RT"

[72B4]
DeviceCode=72B4
DeviceName="FieldPoint RT"
MXSClass=4E638422-151F-469E-A30C-7F8E3B069D9B
ProductCode="{B28DE562-3079-43E1-823C-0DB915C2EC0C}"
ProductName="NI FieldPoint MAX Provider 6.0.12"
ProductVersion="6.0.12020.0"

[Texas_Diaz]

Yeah, it sounds as if something "goofed" and associated with the wrong device class.  If it ever happens again, especially if you can find a reproducing case for it, let us know!

-Danny