Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 14

Here is a long woeful tale of self pity, but I had to tell it to someone(s) that would understand. Tonight, I had to do a hard boot on my VDX (in hindsight I probably didn�t need to hard reset, but I�d rather not talk about that now). It was only my second hard reset in six months, but I�ve been running Backup Buddy every morning and knew I had nothing to fear.

About five minutes into the restore a demonic entity forced me to hit the cancel button. My desktop told me it would cancel in "1 minute" but my Visor kept chugging away for several minutes reloading all 7.5 meg of precious and/or irrelevant data. After the completion chime I was gleeful and giddy. My games, maps, and books were all back - then I hit my calendar... Strange I could have sworn I had a few meetings scheduled at some point in the next five years. Stranger still the only person in my address book was someone named Tech Support.

Not to be daunted I slipped my Visor back into the cradle and hit the synch. Having learned my lesson, I stayed away from the cancel this time. Eventually the re-restore was done and the Yahoo synch was begun. After the hot synch, true synch, and kitchen synch I checked my VDX calendar again and found ... nothing. My palms (no pun intended) grew damp and my tongue grew dry. I checked my Palm Desktop and all my data was gone - I checked my Yahoo account and all my data was gone. Meetings, contacts, and notes wiped from three databases in two easy steps.

Two hours later I can laugh about it, or at least smirk in a bitter sardonic manner. I�m pretty sure that after 20 or 30 e-mails and an hour or so on the phone to my mom I can reconstruct most of my data.

So the funny part of the story is that last Sunday I was gonna pick up a backup module, but I got busy and decided to bump it to next weekend. It seems the PDA gods are not a forgiving sort. I�ll start my data reentry soon, after I�ve bought a backup module. On the bright side, my schedule indicates that I�ve got plenty of free time to reconstruct my lost information.

Okay, I feel better now. I should rejoice in the fact that I haven�t broken the screen or dropped the whole thing in the toilet.

Note: In no way is this an incrimination of Backup Buddy. I think it�s a great product that would have performed fine if not for my impatience. I just seem to be the type that needs at least four separate data backups.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Simi Valley, CA
Posts: 110

I'm sorry to hear your story. Hearing that makes me glad I copied my backup directory before any hard resets. Having only one copy at any time is not enough, as your story proves.



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Joe V. - Simi Valley, CA

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Oregon
Posts: 115

Auh there is the rub..
He had 3 backups that were attacked by the Palm god bits of destruction.
Where is Tron when you need him?

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Rose's are Red
My Visor is Blue....

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: St Petersburg Fla
Posts: 224

quote:

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Originally posted by Daryl:
I just seem to be the type that needs at least four separate data backups.

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 99

An interesting thing that I've found out the hard way is that if you do a hard reset, the natural tendency is to press the buttons to see if everything got cleared out. When you do that you generate a brand new set of data files, all blank and all newer than the backed up hotsynch copies. Not knowing better I then tried hotsynching to restore my files, not realizing that in order to restore I had to reset my backup conduit to restore rather than backup. So what I eventually wound up with was a bunch of blank backed up data files, and all my records were gone. Not saying that anyone here would have the same problem (I'm still a newbie at this PDA stuff :P ) but it's important to know the proper procedure to restore from backup, or you could wind up like me. Needless to say I now use a backup module religiously.

[This message has been edited by kamizuno (edited 07-26-2000).]

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: San Antonio, Tx, USA
Posts: 6

Maybe a simple solution to overwriting the backed up copies on the PC with "reset" Visor files would be to put a "Restore" check box on the HotSync splash page. The one where you select Local or Remote Hotsync. Checking this block would cause the Hotsync to "alert" the Palm desktop to NOT have the Visor files overwrite the PC files. And, instead, have the PC files overwrite the Visor files. This would have the same effect of slecting those options in the Palm Desktop on the PC.

Another advantage, it would allow you to restore from the PC when you can't get to it because you're traveling.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Posts: 170

quote:

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Originally posted by Daryl:
...After the hot synch, true synch, and kitchen synch I checked my VDX calendar again and found ... nothing.

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Let it never be said that Visorheads lack a good healthy sense of humor...