Copy Activator Image to Flash Drives

This topic explains how to run the Make Activators program, which copies an activator image onto activators. From the activators, the information within the image can be loaded onto EViD stations.

The instructions here apply to all types of activators:

  • staging

  • early voting

  • election day

  • voter-outreach

When you run the Make Activators program, activators will be created as you plug them into the USB port(s) on the workstation. If you have multiple USB ports on the workstation, you can make multiple activators simultaneously.

There is no requirement to make an activator for each EViD station: you can remove an activator after the EViD station starts up and use it to copy the image to another EViD. So consider making one activator per site or one per person assigned to loading EViDs, with a few spares.

As the activators for an election are created, a record for each activator is written to an audit report. This report shows how many activators of each mode were made, when they were made, if there were any errors, and other related information. The report can help you verify that the correct mode of activators were made at the proper time, and that they were error-free. See EViD Activators Report for more information.

Important:      Any USB device or memory card (such as an external hard drive, SD card, or compact flash card) inserted into the workstation during the Make Activators process will be treated as an activator. That is, it will be formatted and the image will be copied to it. Take care not to insert any such devices into the workstation during the Make Activators process.

  1. Remove devices from any of the USB ports you want to use for making activators.

  2. Go to EViD > Make Activators to display the EViD Make Activators dialog.

  3. If you are creating staging or voting activators, click Select Election and, on the Select Election dialog, highlight the election you are creating activators for and click OK.

  4. Select the type of activators you want to create:

    To make staging activator, select Staging.

    To make early voting activators, select Election and Early Voting.

    5. Note: You must create your export and images before you can make Election or Voter Outreach activators.

    To make election day activators, select Election and Election Day.
    To make voter outreach activators, select Voter Outreach.

    If you select Election and do not select either Early Voting or Election Day, you will be reminded to select one of these.

  5. If you want the process to label the activators for you, select Apply label to all activators. You will see the default label in the box to the right. The default name is:

    <activation period><election number>

    where <activation period> is:

    • ST—staging

    • EV—early voting

    • ED—election day voting

    • VO—voter outreach

    You can change the default label to anything you like.

  6. Click Make Activators. If you have more than one image for the type of activator you are making, you will be asked to choose the one you want. Highlight your choice and click Continue.

    You will be asked to verify that you are making activators for the correct mode, election, and label instructions. Click Yes to verify the settings and continue. Click No to dismiss the dialog; then choose the correct settings and click Make Activators to continue.

    The Scan for Existing Drives dialog will appear, advising you that it will now examine your workstation for any writable drives. Any writable drives found during the scans will not be used for copying the activator image. This protects any non-activator drives from being overwritten. Once the scan is done, you should take care not to insert any new writable drives into your workstation until the Make Activators process is finished.

  7. Click OK to scan for drives in use. The program will then display the drives it found. These drives will not be used for copying the image to activators.

  8. Insert the flash drives into any USB ports not listed by the scan.

  9. Click OK to begin copying the selected image to the activators. If you did not specify a label in step 5 and a flash drive does not already have a label, you will be asked to provide one.

    As the program copies the image to the activator(s), you can monitor the Activators created box on the right side of the EViD Make Activators dialog to see how many activators have been created so far in this run.

  10. When you see the message Copying completed. Remove activator., remove the activator(s) from the workstation and insert any others you want to prepare. The copying will continue automatically when the program detects the presence of a new flash drive.

  11. When you have copied to all activators, remove them from the workstation and click Exit.

You are now ready to test the activators.