(Last edited Feb 29, 2008)

This is part four of the Putting it all together series. If you haven’t read part one, you can read it here. In this part, I will be discussing several third party backup program solutions.

Along the lines of the expansion flash memory SD card, backing up your RAM data is an essential and important part of your daily routine. If you don’t have a back up program or a backup strategy, maybe it’s time you start one. Why? Because, just like with computers and all other electronic devices, things will eventually fail. The only way you can limit your risk of losing all your valuable data is to back them up onto a storage medium. In the case of the computer, it could be an external hard drive, a number of CDs or DVDs, via a network, online storage, etc. In the case of Palms, you can back the files stored in RAM to your hard drive, a temporary removable drive, CDs, or the flash memory expansion (SD) card.

Restoring data files from the Backup folder in the computer

The Palm has somewhat of a system of backing up most files and data stored in RAM via the Hotsync process, storing the files under the Backup folder. But that is not very reliable. It doesn’t back up everything. There are lots of saved or unsaved preferences files or other files that may not be backed up via Hotsync. So, it’s not a reliable means of a backup, although if you don’t have any kind of backup solution or program, it’s still better than nothing.

Hotsync back up when you accidentally wiped everything on the Palm

If you accidentally erased everything on the palm and want to reload everything back, simply do a hotsync. The hotsync process will determine that there’s info on the computer’s Backup folder and there’s no info on the Palm and will start to synchronize both of them, loading everything that’s on the computer’s Backup folder to the Palm so that both of them have the same info. Most times, this is the “backup” feature of hotsync.

Sometimes, you may experience something that you don’t want to reload everything back (ie. software conflicts that causes reset and continues resetting). Should you encounter a problem like experiencing endless loop resets (ie. doing a soft reset by poking a pin at the reset hole located at the back of the unit doesn’t get rid of an error screen), you may have to resort to “wiping out” the Palm completely by doing a hard reset and reset it back to factory settings. That means, that everything you’ve stored on the Palm will be wiped out. Although your Palm, after the hard reset is back to its factory settings, if you do a Hotsync, you will have everything re-loaded back in. The best way to prevent any problem files or programs from being re-loaded or re-installed back causing problems again is to make sure that you only re-load programs and files back one at a time.

Provided you don’t have a backup program installed on the Palm, here’s the steps you can do to restore most of the programs and files back to the palm, solely relying on the backup created by Hotsync on your computer’s hard drive.

Restore the last hotsync’ed files from your computer to Palm

1 - Search for the Backup folder in your computer’s hard drive.

It should be located at:

C:\Program Files\Palm\YourHotsyncID\Backup

or:

C:\Palm

C:\Program Files\Palm

C:\Program Files\Handspring

C:\Program Files\Palmone

The YourHotsyncID should be replaced with your own Hotsync ID for the Palm.

2 - Rename the Backup folder to something else, like Backup-old or Backup2, etc.

Reset hole in the Zire 71 and the power button

3 - Perform a hard reset: Press down on the Power button. While keeping it pressed, perform a soft reset (poke a pin or similar object into the RESET hole located at the back of the unit (or at the bottom). (With some Palms with a slider, you may need to slide out the Palm to expose the RESET hole). Keep the Power button pressed until you see the splash or Palm logo screen and then release it.

Check this Palm reset hole page for information on where the reset hole is located on your Palm device.

If done correctly, you should see the following screen come up.

The “erase all” screen on the Palm

There should be screen that asks you whether you wish to erase all data. You will need to press “up” on the D-pad (directional pad button) or “up” on the 5-way navigator/joystick button or whichever button that would indicate “up“. There are many different kinds of buttons on the various models. Just press whichever button will indicate “up“.

If done correctly, the Palm will be reset and go through the splash or Palm logo screen and reset to factory settings. You will be asked to re-calibrate the screen by tapping in the middle or intersection the crossed lines of the “X” or “+” and go through the date and time settings. The brightness will be back to default levels (usually much brighter), and you will notice that there’s only the default Palm programs and none of the third party applications you’ve previously installed. If you don’t notice these things, you may have only performed a soft reset or a warm reset and didn’t wipe out the Palm. Try the process again and make sure you press and hold the Power button and “up” when prompted.

4 - Do a Hotsync. Since you have renamed the Backup folder on the computer, there should be nothing that Hotsync will be able to reload or re-install. You should still have the factory settings on the Palm after the hotsync. Had you not renamed the Backup folder, Hotsync will detect that your Palm and the Backup folder are not synchronized and will then re-install and re-load all the data files from the computer back into the Palm.

Although, in most times, when something happens to the Palm (ie.static charge) to hard reset it, you would want a backup restore performed so that you can get back most of the data. And, this Hotsync re-load or restore attempts to get your Palm to its previous state.

But in this case, something in the data was causing conflicts or the reset loops or whatever problem so you would want to make sure that you don’t re-load or re-install it back onto the Palm. So, you are only loading what’s necessary and diagnose which program or file is causing the problem.

5 - To re-load files and settings back, go back to your old Backup folder. The ones you want to re-load back are usually your address book, memo pad, etc. The following files are the ones you should re-load back onto your Palm:

AddressCitiesDB.PDB, AddressCountriesDB.PDB, AddressDB.PDB all other Address PDB files, CitiesDB.PDB, DatebookDB.PDB, locLCusLocationDB.PDB, MemoDDB.PDB, NetworkDB.PDB, System_MIDI_Sounds.PDB (if you have Geeksounds or EmeraldSounds previously installed)

AddressCitiesDB.PDB contains the “City” field entry for your address book, just like the AddressCountriesDB.PDB contains the “Countries” entry and so on. But don’t be confused. These files do contain the actual “data” but just the “fields”. Your actual data is located in the address.dat and address.bak file, which is under the address folder in

C:\Program Files\Palm\YourHotsyncID\address

ConnectionMgr50DB.PDB contains info on your internet connection

DatebookDB.PDB contains all the data in your Date Book or calendar

locLCusLocationDB.PDB contains the World clock locations that you have added

MemoDDB.PDB contains all the data in your Memo Pad

NetworkDB.PDB contains info on your network settings

Queries contains your previous search or “Find” data

System_MIDI_Sounds contains all the alarm tones

Saved_Preferences.PRC contains all the preferences settings for your device, such as the color, brightness, launcher preferences, etc. But, unless you are sure that there is nothing in the preferences that could cause the problems (and it’s not that easy to determine), it may not be advisable to re-load it back in, but rather re-set them back again. You make the call. I guess you can always go back and do the hard reset again and not load them back if you’ve determined that the problem or data corruption stems from the Saved_Preferences file.

Depending on what you originally installed, you may or may not have all of the files I’ve indicated. The System_MIDI_Sounds.PDB is the midi alarm file that has all the alarm tones that you can use. If you’ve installed Geeksounds or Emerald Sounds, which is a much more extensive collection of midi tones, you will want to re-load this file back, or you can always re-install it back again via the usual means.

To reload them back to the Palm, you’d have to either do a “drag and drop” (select the file, click on the left mouse. While keeping the mouse button pressed, drag it to where you want to copy it to and then release at the correct destination) of the files. Or, you can do a copy and paste. Select (highlight) the file, right click on the mouse to bring up a pop up menu. Select (with left mouse button) Copy. Go to the destination you want to copy this file to. Right click on the mouse button. Select Paste. You should have a copy of the file now “pasted” to this new destination.

For more info on how to install programs and files into the Palm, please read back on a previous posting The Hotsync Application: Pt 2: install Palm programs

I would suggest first re-installing and re-loading the files like AddressCities.PDB that I’ve mentioned first and doing a Hotsync. Then, testing to make sure all the data has been entered. And then, re-loading specific program files (.prc) and database files (.pdb) that you are familiar with one at a time and doing a Hotsync. Then test to make sure that everything works.

This may seem like a long and tedious process, but it is necessary to pinpoint which program is causing the problem you’ve experienced. If you re-loaded and re-installed everything back, you will get the same problem you’ve previously experienced, without knowing which files or programs are causing it.

In the next part of the series, I will continue with the discussion of backups focusing on third party back applications that can save you a lot of hassles. No more renaming the Backup folder or Hotsync (unless you want to).

Also, you may want to check out this posting on resets and loops where I’ve provided some diagnostic programs that can help you diagnose what is causing the problems.

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com or palmdiscovery.net, the website you are reading it from is guilty of copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

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