Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for monitoring machinery in which data is collected and stored based on application specific retention rules. Based on an alarm value, data records are adjusted by reducing the spectral resolution, coefficient precision and time intervals between records. An alarm is activated when the data value is greater than a predetermined alarm threshold value. Memory management can compare the memory availability to projected requirements. If the projected memory requirements exceeds memory availability, the data records can be interactively decimated. When decimation cannot make available sufficient memory for projected requirements within the retention rules, an alarm is issued. Collected data can be transferred with a removable nonvolatile memory or infrared communications with a computer device.