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-- 16 Mb RAM upgrade for Visor Prism is available (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=14215)

Did you move the JackBack, Visorplugin, and syszlib to the 16mg? I seem to remember when I tried this, I received a message that one of the three could not be moved only copied. Did that occur with you? If so was that the way you had it set up when you did your restore?

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Here is the reply I got from Hari at Brayder about which files need to be where and exsctly what you do. It is excerpted from a slighlty longer note:

1. Common files in RAM

JackBack.prc
sysZLib.prc

2a. If you are using JackBack with the Flash module you need:

VisorPlugin.prc in RAM

JBInstall should be stored in Flash so that you'll be able to restore all
the above in case of a hard reset.

2b. If you are using it with the CF adapter you need to add to the ones in 2.

VisorCF.prc
Kopsis' FALib.prc

4. You can do in both cases Image backups or compressed backups (On the CF
case the Image backup is the recommended mode as it is much faster during
both Backup and Restore operations.)

5. To backup you can press the Big button after you've selected (once only)
the Image backup option inthe Configuration screen

6. To restore the full image you choose from the Main screen the menu
Image/Restore.

And after I left that glowing post last night, it crashed and WOULDN'T RESTORE. It told me I was missing the plugin on the CF card. I definitely wasn;t. In gfact, I then copied it to the CF card and got the same message.

I restored everything from backup buddy (which misfired twice - it took three attempts but I got it all). BackUpBuddy definitely works - eventually (and FYI, Blue Nomad put out the newest versions yesterday). Once I had everything back on my Visor I did a traditional copy to the 16 MB Hagiwara module. I can see everything on there, and it may be slower than the image restore, but it sure seems safer to me if I'm away from home.

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I'll say it again...
We need someone out there to create a 16MB Backup Module. Let's go hardware developers! There are enough of us 16MB upgraders to create a market for these things. I understand the memory needed to make a backup module is cheaper than flash memory, so I hope someone decides to give it a go. I'd even try to do it if I knew how. I'm sure a reasonable licensing agreement could be reached with Handspring for their backup software.

Eboy A follow up on your instructions from JackBack Tech.


When you say load JackBack and Syszlib in RAM (do you mean on the VPR? or the Card?) would that not keep you from reinstalling JACKBACK in the event of a hard reset?


I thought you had to have JackBack, SysZlib, and Visorplugin loaded on the 16mg card so that if you did a hard reset away from a pc....you could reinstall them on the VPR ram and then restore.


(I see that jackbackinstall needs to be loaded on the 16mg card so that you can REINSTALL to the VPR Ram for restore procedures). That is one area I had not thought about and my VPR is loading JAckBackInstall right now!

__________________

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quote:

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Originally posted by Scottster
I know I'm beating a dead horse, but I'll say it again...
We need someone out there to create a 16MB Backup Module. Let's go hardware developers! There are enough of us 16MB upgraders to create a market for these things. I understand the memory needed to make a backup module is cheaper than flash memory, so I hope someone decides to give it a go. I'd even try to do it if I knew how. I'm sure a reasonable licensing agreement could be reached with Handspring for their backup software.

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quote:

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Originally posted by creole


Why would you want a backup module when you can get inline RAM from PalmPilotUpgrade.com?

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What's wrong with the MemPlug and 64 meg backups? I use it everyday backing up my system with different configs in seperate folders and I have 45 books some as large as 1 meg on it.

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WayNorth
[email protected]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with MemPlug, any of the CF adapters out there, the Flash memory module by Hagiwara or the software solutions such as BackupBuddy. They all claim to perform backups, and I'm sure that they DO back up most of your PDA. That is where the trouble lies. MOST of your PDA. If I'm away from my computer, I need a 100% reliable way of restoring my Prism to it's pre-crash/hard reset condition. That means EVERY file, EVERY setting, EVERY password, EVERY registration code, well, you get the drift. FileMover and it's cousins (FaFileMover, PiFileMover, etc.) just don't back up EVERYTHING. Even if you 'select all' before copying to the memory device, you are bound to miss files (some are hidden and not available for selection unless you first unhide them with a program like Filez. This is definitely not a quick or convenient way to backup.) JackBack can have problems of it's own based on the driver set used with the storage device. I have no doubts that these solutions will eventually cut the mustard, but until then, I truly believe the only way to get a 100% clone of the contents of internal memory is with a dedicated backup module that backs up as a single operation, not file by file. But hey... that's just MY opinion (and last I heard, opinions were only worth 2�)

quote:

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Originally posted by waynorth
What's wrong with the MemPlug and 64 meg backups? I use it everyday backing up my system with different configs in seperate folders and I have 45 books some as large as 1 meg on it.

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Looking back through this thread, I see we got slightly off topic. Tony Rudenko, the driving force behind PalmPilotUpgrade.com, initially posted here on VC to announce the availablity of a 16MB upgrade for Handspring Prisms and Platinums (he also does Palm M500 and M505s BTW). I have experienced his service firsthand and can attest to his marvelous work. He has instilled life into my Prism which was almost out of room. I highly recommend his service to everyone who has an upgradeable device. See the first post in this thread for the link to his site.

Tony, I feel I speak for everyone who has had the pleasure to deal with you and your company, when I say THANK YOU for the valuable service you provide to the Handspring/Palm community.

quote:

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Originally posted by PDACPA
Eboy A follow up on your instructions from JackBack Tech.


When you say load JackBack and Syszlib in RAM (do you mean on the VPR? or the Card?) would that not keep you from reinstalling JACKBACK in the event of a hard reset?


I thought you had to have JackBack, SysZlib, and Visorplugin loaded on the 16mg card so that if you did a hard reset away from a pc....you could reinstall them on the VPR ram and then restore.


(I see that jackbackinstall needs to be loaded on the 16mg card so that you can REINSTALL to the VPR Ram for restore procedures). That is one area I had not thought about and my VPR is loading JAckBackInstall right now!

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Follow-up on restoring after ten days or so

1. JackBack never worked (though their tech guy tried his best)

2.16 MB Hagiwara card works great, except that after it formats, it says to hit reset, but you can't - it freezes the Visor. You have to pull the module out and pray (so far, they've been answered - no problems, and that would be the worst - a hard reset on the Visor and an empty Hagiwara "backup" disc. But thankfully...

3. BackupBuddy works great (even though it takes a while).

Every time I have to do a soft reset, I still get butterflies, but it works. I have about 15 of the 16 Mb used, and restoring takes a while. Well, restoring from the Hagiwara module when my Visor has been (inadvertently and inexplicably) hard reset is fast - about a minute. but restoring from BUB can be an hour-and-a-half, easily, since it restores everything, and then RE-backs it all up. But the main thing is, it works.

I strongly recommend you keep a hold of your original backup module. In case of wipeout on the road, you'll wish you had it, since it probably contains your most important 9 MB of apps and data. I mean, I kept all the eBooks and big games like Triv on a separate module before I got the upgrade. So even though your appointments won't be up to date, at least you'll have a base to work with in a pinch.

Hope this helps. Learn from my pain.

Has anyone had any experience with the PiBackup application on the MemPlug? I've been hearing conflicting information about it's reliability. Does it work as well as Handspring's Backup Module?

I've also been hearing about a new CompactFlash adapter that's a true springboard module. It's called the NxDrive-CF and it's by a company called Nxist. It's like MemPlug in that the apps reside on the module itself. One of the Apps, NxBackup might be worth looking at.

Kopsis Engineering stated that there is a true springboard module in the works that uses FAFileMover and other Kopsis software in ROM on the module. I don't know if this is the module, but it looks like a much better solution for CompactFlash than the "no software on board" adapters available now. We'll have to wait and see.

quote:

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Originally posted by Scottster
...I've also been hearing about a new CompactFlash adapter that's a true springboard module. It's called the NxDrive-CF and it's by a company called Nxist. It's like MemPlug in that the apps reside on the module itself. One of the Apps, NxBackup might be worth looking at.

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quote:

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Kopsis Engineering stated that there is a true springboard module in the works that uses FAFileMover and other Kopsis software in ROM on the module. I don't know if this is the module, but it looks like a much better solution for CompactFlash than the "no software on board" adapters available now. We'll have to wait and see.

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Does anyone know where to get the Chips?

I've been searching everywhere for a 8M*16 or 4M*16 3,3V DRAM Chip to do the upgrade myself - does anyone know where to get those?

FWIW, I have had alot of catastrophic failures and had to restore about 5 times in the last 2 weeks. I never lost ONE piece of data. We are talking COMPLETE restores onto a completely empty system. I use BackupBuddy. I been quite brave at experimenting with new software because of this (this experimenting has been what's caused the data losing crashes).

I back up to both my PC at home and at work and I have no problems. It happens automatically everytime I hotsync. It adds about 50% time to your hotsync time but that is ok with me. I do it over serial and USB, and both machines never complain about the other. The only complaint I have is minor, and that is every few days I go an makea back up of my back ups folder so if the original folder gets corrupted (like if it has a catastrphic crash during the install of some lame PD program... which has happened) I can go back to a duplicate folder.

I haven't tried this yet but there is software included to modem into your PC for backups if your traveling. So for all the stress about backing up I seen in this thread I would recommend checking out BB to save you some headaches. (no I don't work for blue nomad I just like BB and WS)

James

quote:

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Originally posted by Kintama
I haven't tried this yet but there is software included to modem into your PC for backups if your traveling. So for all the stress about backing up I seen in this thread I would recommend checking out BB to save you some headaches. (no I don't work for blue nomad I just like BB and WS)
James

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Will Backup Buddy allow me to modem a BACKUP in addition to a restore?


Yes. Check the demo version out and see if it's to your taste. I don't use this functionality at all, so I wouldn't know how practical it is or good it is.

James

MemPlug + PiBackup?

Anyone have any thoughts about using MemPlug and PiBackup? It seems inexpensive the module is 49.95 (and you can buy an SM card from Amazon for a lot less than the PalmGear bundle), plus the forthcoming PiDirect software will allow you to run apps from the SM card directly - coming 6/15, according to the press release.

I wonder if you could use the new BackupBuddy software that works for SM cards om the Palm50X? Then when you back up you would only have to back up changed files instead of everything.

This could be a great solution, but the other great solutions have, as this topic proves, not been too great.

MemPlug update

You know, i just wrote a great, witty, informative post on my experience with MemPlug and a Smart Media card for backing up the 16 MB Visor, and I previewed it, and I wanted to edit one thing in it, and I hit the "back" arrow...and it was GONE! Gone forever. And it took me a half hour to compose, and I'm really, really pissed. Because there's no way to edit from the "preview reply" screen - or if there is, it doen't jump out at you. And now I'm too tired to do it all over again, but here's the gist:

Pi Technologies sells the MemPlug, and it comes with some great software, all of which resides on the card, not the Visor, so in case of hard reset, you should be able to restore by popping the MemPlug module in.

So I backed up, and it took about 45 minutes the first time, because I have about 15 Mb of stuff on there. Then I did some things on the Visor and backed up again. Now here's the beauty part: PiBackUp ONLY backs up files that have been modified. The second back up only took a minute, and at the end it tells you "Backed up 8 files. 612 files were left untouched." I imagine that this is the kind of speed you get with BackUpBuddy VFS on the Palm M50x.

For safety, I also backed everything up onto the Hagiwara 16 Mb module (a sort of "backup backup").

So far so good. here's the only caveat: I haven't done a restore yet. You may recall that at one time, I was sure that Jackback would be the answer, and it backed up beautifully, once you got all the files straight - which ones on the Visor, which ones on the CF card, which ones on the Flash module - but it NEVER could restore, which of course is the whole point.

Now, in the name of science, i could hard reset the Visor and attempt the restore from the MemPlug, but you know that sooner or later, and probably sooner, the damn thing will crash and I'll have to do it anyway. I just don't feel like buying trouble right this second.

FYI, after I began my first backup on the MemPlug, I read that you shoud disable all hacks before backing up or restoring. I hadn't done that, and it didn't seem to be a problem - nothign froze or reset or anything, but again, I haven't restored yet. Maybe it's like when I do a restore from the Hagiwara or from BackUpBuddy on my desktop - all of my fonts get changed back to normal, and I have to reset them on FontHack 123.

OK that's the short version. Trust me, my original message was better. VisorCentral - FIX THAT!