Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 13

I'm trying to decide between buying BackupBuddy or the Backup Module springboard. The springboard can be used anytime while on the road w/o a computer, but I've heard a lot of good things about BackupBuddy. Of course, most of the positive feedback on Backup Buddy may be from Palm users that don't have a springboard slot and therefore can't use the Backup Module.

I haven't used either one, so I was hoping that someone could provide their feedback on the pros and cons of each option.

Thanks,

John

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

John,
as a present user of the module, I have to say the biggest PRO is that you can back-up you module anywhere, not just at your PC. You can also restore anywhere also. I carry my module with me, but not in the unit. I periodically back up, usually after entering data that I don't want to lose, and sync once a day. That way I always have a current "picture" of what's in my Visor.
Will you be entering a lot of data each day? If not, why do you want to be able to back up your data? Will you need to acess the info away from your PC?
I'm interested in getting Back-Up buddy as an adjunct to my module, as I've heard good things about it. Any users out there?
Michael

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Midland, Texas
Posts: 231

BackupBuddy is wonderful. Can't imagine (Oh the HORROR!) of not having it. Especially in light of the occasional looping reset from an incompatible app. I have had BB since my Palm III, and it has made all the upgrades with me wonderfully. A great program.

That said, I can't really speak to the BB -v- Backup SB because I don't have a Backup SB, but I would like to get the SB in the future. The combination of the two seems like wonderful protection for data loss, if not a little overkill.


tyler

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

I have both, and it depends on what you do more. Do you travel a lot? Do you HotSync very little? If the answer is yes, get the Backup Module. If you don't travel often and add programs often to your Visor, BBNG may be better for you.

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James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.Hromadka.com

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: New York City
Posts: 29

I have both Backup Buddy (from my Palm III days) and the Backup Module and I have to admit that Backup Buddy is now somewhat redundant. There is no doubt that it is far simpler to do a full restore with the Backup Module and that it works perfectly. On the other hand, Backup Buddy puts all your files in the backup directory so you can see them, while the Backup Module is a black box. Whether this is worth the extra time it takes to sync with Backup Buddy is questionable.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

There's nothing wrong with having too many backups, and I find backup buddy's increased time not much of an issue because it's fully automated anyway. I just make sure I turn off backups of AvantGo stuff, since backing that up would be useless.

OK, so I might a bit of a freak, but I've gone as far as to make an archival backup of my backup, stored off my hard drive. I'm a bit paranoid, but sometimes those backups come in handy. Several years ago I wrote an article which I'm now thinking of updating to publish. The only place I found it was on my 800 Mb Travan tape archive from years ago. It was on some other discs which either I have since erased or which have become corrupted. There's always the risk of one of the two backups being corrupted, and if you aren't storing the info elsewhere (like addresses in Outlook), then you're out of luck if your only backup is lost too.

Backup buddy is great, but if you are away from your computer a lot, then I'd get a backup module, preferably in addition to backup buddy.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 13

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm leaning towards the Backup Module for the main reason that I can backup and restore w/o my laptop. While I use a laptop on a regular basis, my goal is to be as 'complete' as possible with just my Visor. My main concern is that I'd be somewhere w/o my laptop, using my Visor for email or while on a trip, and then it crashes. With the Backup Module, it's no problem (assuming I carry it around all the time).

The biggest advantage I can see to Backup Buddy is that you can easily access the individual items that have been backed up, and I think it will also archive apps you delete from your Palm so you can easily reinstall them at a later time.

While there is some redundancy, I can see the benefit of having both backup options but I think I'll probably go with the Backup Module first.

Thanks again for your feedback everyone.

John

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Mililani, HI, USA
Posts: 256

There are two other considerations here that might interest you. First, BackupBuddy gives you quite a bit of control over what gets backed up. And because it backs up your Palm to the original backup directory in /palm/<user>/backup, you can access individual .prc and .pdb files for restoration. On the other hand, the module is a one-shot deal, and if there is any single app or database that you want to restore, you must restore the whole system to do it.

Second, there is another app out there that offers some of the same functions of Backup Buddy--but it's free! It's called BackupAll. It doesn't give you the control that BB does, but it's a good thing to have in conjunction with a backup module. The app resides on the Palm unit instead of the computer, and it works by allowing you to manually set the backup bits for all or some of the databases. You can find it in palmgear.

BTW, I own a backup module and use BackupAll. With these two I don't have the need for BackupBuddy.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 106

I too use BackupAll and have used it to restore from a hard reset with no problems. I have not used Backup Buddy so I can't compare for you. However, note the following items re: BackupAll.

1. If you delete a file from the Visor/PDA it is *NOT* deleted from the backup directory. You must do this manually on the PC, else it would get restored if you ever did so.

2. To do a restore you have to change the conduit for a one-time (not default) change to have the PC override the handheld in all the categories that this is available. So restoring is not a one-button deal, though it's still pretty easy.

Another program that helps (also freeware) is Zarf's Catalog (or Z'Catalog) which show amongst other things about all the files in the handheld, the backup bit status (and you can change it; one file at a time - useful if you had used BackupAll to set all backup bits and wanted to clear a few).

Hope this helps. Both of the above available at palm.eisenbach.com (probably other places too).

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Posts: 36

Regarding backupall...i want it to backup every application, database, etc on my visor. to do this, do i click 'force' or 'all'. I've tried clicking both, and then i hotsynced. i would have assumed it would take a while to backup all 7 megs, but the sync went as fast as it always has, which is very quick. when i look in c:\program files\palm\ebrown\backup there are most of my databases, and it shows them to have been modified at the time of hotsync, but many of my programs aren't there. does backupall backup those program?

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 106

Clicking 'All' or 'Changed' only toggles the backup bit. Files are not backed up unless they have been modified on the handheld more recently than the desktop (hence 'synchronize'). 'Force' both sets the backup bit and changes the 'modified time/date' to the current time/date so that all files should be backed up on the next hot synch. You can see (and optionally change) these file details using Zarf's Catalog (or Z'Catalog) a freeware program to verify what's going on.

I haven't had any problem with the 'Force' setting.