National Instruments

A critical aspect of any scientific and engineering application is saving data to disk. The most well-conceived applications are ineffective if you cannot quickly locate and interpret acquired data later for meaningful information. While databases may be considered the best location to store data, the prohibitive overhead and expert knowledge needed to create and maintain databases often lead engineers and scientists to store data locally in a variety of file types. The new Windows Vista operating system provides vastly improved search tools to help you locate and organize such files; however, engineers and scientists often have additional needs with regard to accessing stored data that Windows Vista search may not be able to satisfy.