Patent ID: 8024293

Claim:
A method for spooling experimental data on a computer system, wherein the experimental data comprises data corresponding to a container having a plurality of sub-containers, each sub-container having a biological specimen disposed therein or thereon, and wherein the computer system includes an analysis instrument with a first database, a second database, and a plurality of third databases, the method comprising the steps of: copying the second database from the analysis instrument to a shared database, wherein the second database includes: configuration data used to collect data from the container, summary data for the container calculated from the plurality of sub-containers; and summary data for the sub-containers calculated from a plurality of image data and feature data collected from each of the sub-containers, wherein the configuration data, summary data for the container, and summary data for the sub-containers are organized into a first plurality of database tables; copying the plurality of third databases from the analysis instrument to a shared database file server, wherein the plurality of third databases include the plurality of image data and feature data collected from the plurality of sub-containers, and wherein the image and feature data is organized in a second plurality of database tables; and updating links in the first database on the analysis instrument, which previously reflected the locations of the second and plurality of third databases on the analysis instrument, to reflect the new storage locations for the second database on the shared database and the plurality of third databases on the shared database file server, wherein the first database is a pass-through database that includes the links to the second database and the plurality of third databases but does not include any data collected from the container, and wherein the first database is used by a display application to view data collected from the container.