Save your "Stock" file - some good ideas!

[EC_Tune]

Hi all,

Here's some good advice from someone who's done it wrong once and lost a stock file.

Right after you read your PCM/ECM/TCM for the first time, save the file as "STOCK.hpt" or whatever you want so that you know it's not a modded file; unless of course it was modded previously. Usually on a known stock file I will use the Operating System part number(s) as the file name.

Then once you've saved it on your computer, go to that file, "Right-Click" on it and select "Properties". Near the bottom of the "Properties" window you will see a check box for "Read-Only". Check it and click "OK".

Attachment 23916
Now you can't write over your stock file by accident!
If you try you'll get an error like this:
Attachment 23918

After you've done that you may even want an online copy of it so you can retrieve it from anywhere. You can upload it to the HP Tuners Repository or email it to yourself with a Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo mail account for safe keeping.

[Nick 2K2 SS]

I actually do this with all of my tunes after I've flashed them so that I can always go back and see what that calibration was that I put in it for that version. After flashing a tune I always save a copy of it with a new name and that's the one I start playing with for any future changes. Good advice on the stock tune. I would also recommend saving your stock tune onto a CD or Flash drive that you will put somewhere else incase the hard drive on your PC fails or something.

[Bill@HPTuners]

Good advice Doug

[SmokedOutZ28]

Yes it is and thanks for that info at 3am. Now I wont make that mistake anymore.

[MustangPunk]

Yes, very good advice... Just last week I had to reinstall my OS and lost everything, lucky I backed up alot including my tunes. I lost some good pictures of my Army adventures, haha. Lucky I still got the memories, though wish I could forget some of them ...

[bigbang70]

I haven't seen in the forum how you start the engine the first time after you flash the computer is there a copy paste or what. how do you get a baseline map in order to start the engine and tune ??? i've heard you need to start from scratch. is this true ? Thanks

[BlackZJ]

I haven't seen in the forum how you start the engine the first time after you flash the computer is there a copy paste or what. how do you get a baseline map in order to start the engine and tune ??? i've heard you need to start from scratch. is this true ? Thanks

First you have to read the stock file out of the PCM. THIS is your basline and you should keep it at a save place.
Now you can start to modify the stock file and write it to the PCM this is usually meant by "starting from scratch".

[DoMiStIc_RuSh_06]

i know this is newb question, as im new to hpt, but if i do a read entire and i save it as "stock", the stock program will still be on the pcm right? This wont mess anything up?

[Bill@HPTuners]

i know this is newb question, as im new to hpt, but if i do a read entire and i save it as "stock", the stock program will still be on the pcm right? This wont mess anything up?

Correct.

[AussieG8]

This is an old thread and I hazard a guess this has been said before, but as Im shameless I will say it anyway.

The advice about saving a stock file and keeping it safe is priceless, however this is only half the story. Laptops die, hard drives crash and sometimes your cute 3 year old will wipe everything on your PC with an ease that makes a pro blush. Comping from the IT industry its amazing how even with the best backup strategy file go missing.

If I have something I wish to keep here is what I do to ensure its life.

1. Save the file to multiple places on your drive (s)
2. Save a copy to a portable device such as an external drive or USB key
3. Burn a copy to CD.

Keep in mind that even the best storage device sees file degradation over time. CD/DVD has a shelf life of about 5 years, you may well get rid of the car or do things that make the base file unusable in this period but if you really want to keep something never trust a single storage device

[jcrumpley]

In addition to the stuff AussieG8 mentioned, I email the file to myself as an attachment at home and at work. That way you can always search your email archive and find a copy.

[Snyper2121]

Sorry for bringing this thread alive but, if I bought the car with a modified tune. Is there a possible way to get a stock tune from somewhere else than the dealership?

[06MonteSS]

If I saved my stock file a year ago...and now I've just updated my hptuners software to its latest version , do I need to save a stock backup again with the new hpt version? Or will my stock backup from a year ago still be ok to use and will still show/display any new tables/settings that have been added to the hpt software since that time??

[Keith@HPTuners]

Your old file has all the data that your new file does.

The nice thing about VCM Editor 2.25, when you read your vehicle, VCM Editor maintains complete history of your file, so you can always open the original read from within hpt file via VCM Editor. If the first time you read the vehicle, it is stock, then the original read within your hpt file will be your stock (base) file.

VCM Editor 2.25 maintains a full raw binary change log, compared to 2.24 that stored an interpreted change log.

[06MonteSS]

So if the newest update of hpt has new tables/settings added to it that the older version of hpt did not have, I don't have to read out my stock tune again with the updated hpt version in order to have that new data saved from the stock tune file? That data would still show up in the new hpt version even though the older stock file was saved from the older hpt version that did not have the new tables/settings in it??

For example, say the new updated version of hpt has a new table/setting for my vehicle we'll call abcd1.

But when I saved my original stock tune with the old hpt version, there was no table/setting in the old hpt version for abcd1.

So if I open the old stock tune file with the new hpt version, would there be any data to show/display for table/setting abcd1? Even though that table/setting was not in the old version hpt when I saved the file? How would it have the data for that table/setting if that table/setting was not in the previous version hpt when I saved the file?

And thank you for your help/info!

[jtrosky]

The way that I understand it, when you read your ECM, it reads EVERYTHING - regardless of whether HPTuners software uses the data or not. So a file read from your ECM will have data for every tunable parameter that the ECM supports - even if the HPTuner software doesn't/can't use or change that data. If that is true, then simply updateing the HPTuner software will never require you to re-read the ECM since the data was always in the original ECM read to begin with.

Again, that's my understanding of how it works - someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Engineer@HPT]

Correct. No need to reread.

[06MonteSS]

awesome.. thank you all!

[MikeOD]

The nice thing about VCM Editor 2.25, when you read your vehicle, VCM Editor maintains complete history of your file, so you can always open the original read from within hpt file via VCM Editor. If the first time you read the vehicle, it is stock, then the original read within your hpt file will be your stock (base) file.

VCM Editor 2.25 maintains a full raw binary change log, compared to 2.24 that stored an interpreted change log.

I had no idea 2.25 was doing that. This is a really cool feature.