Database Users

Recommend a Reliable Backup Program Please

Hi Everyone,
Which Backup program do you use? Is there one you recommend? All this hacking my Cingular 8525 around has had me hard-reset at least twice within the last week. I need a good and reliable backup program since installing all of my software is taking me over 2.5 hours of time.
Thanks for responding.
ADP

spb backup has never let me down.well worth trying.
sprite also gets good reviews but I've never used it.

read http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1270&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

I've tried different backup programs with my TyTN.
I found that the only perfect working program is SPB Backup.
I've already restored my data after hard reset with this program (not once) and all is good.

i use spb also, works great

I vote for spb as well.
Although keep in mind that it only does back up system settings and core software installed in device (not sure what exactly), not the whole file system of your PDA. My problem was, I deleted some files and uninstalled some programs after backing up, and after restore they were not there! (just blank icons).
I would love to mirror my whole device on PC hard drive, yet I am not sure about software for this purpose.

how well does spb backup perform when you do a ROM upgrade?

MilanoRex said:
how well does spb backup perform when you do a ROM upgrade?
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Whatever backup product you use, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT applying a backup from a different ROM version. You're asking for serious trouble.
Simply put, if you update your ROM, you're also plan on reinstalling everything clean from scratch...

mnez said:
I vote for spb as well.
Although keep in mind that it only does back up system settings and core software installed in device (not sure what exactly), not the whole file system of your PDA. My problem was, I deleted some files and uninstalled some programs after backing up, and after restore they were not there! (just blank icons).
I would love to mirror my whole device on PC hard drive, yet I am not sure about software for this purpose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobile Deployment
Deploy an identical policy based corporate image to all your mobile devices. From the original creators of the industry leading Symantec GhostTM cloning solution, Sprite Clone provides rapid and reliable deployment to multiple mobile devices thereby assuring consistency and cost effectiveness...
http://www.spritesoftware.com/sprite-clone

goestoeleven said:
Whatever backup product you use, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT applying a backup from a different ROM version. You're asking for serious trouble.
Simply put, if you update your ROM, you're also plan on reinstalling everything clean from scratch...
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Click to collapse
Sprite Backup works perfectly with ROM and DEVICE upgrades.. I switched from my Wizard to my Hermes without any problems..

MilanoRex said:
how well does spb backup perform when you do a ROM upgrade?
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Click to collapse
Use Sprite Backup in this case, it'll work unless you try to cross-restore between AKU2.x and AKU3.x. And please DO read my above-linked article; in there, I've also elaborated on this very question.

bobstarina said:
I found that the only perfect working program is SPB Backup.
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Strange you had problems with the otehr alternates (Sunnysoft Backup, SKTools 3.0, Sprite 5.1). Are you sure you tried the LATEST versions of them? It's only lately that, for example, Sunnysoft Backup received REAL WM5 support.
Also please read the Backup Bible I've linked in above if you need more info on all these questions.

MilanoRex said:
Sprite Backup works perfectly with ROM and DEVICE upgrades.. I switched from my Wizard to my Hermes without any problems..
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Both of you are correct. Sprite DOES work great in most cases, except for restoring AKU3 content under AKU2 and vice versa.

does restoreing after a ROM upgrade using Sprite also keep your current registry changes as well...or do i have to do all registry hacks all over again...or even after just a hard reset not a ROM upgrade do i still have to enter the reg. edits all over again....

Sprite works well for me

strikeIII said:
does restoreing after a ROM upgrade using Sprite also keep your current registry changes as well...or do i have to do all registry hacks all over again...or even after just a hard reset not a ROM upgrade do i still have to enter the reg. edits all over again....
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It will restore your registry changes too. Otehrwise, it wouldn't work at all with a lot of third-party apps that also use the Registry to store their stuff / settings.

Does anyone know if Spb backup will back up outlook notes?

Sprite is the only one worth getting since you can restore after a ROM or device change Just make sure you RTFM before you go changing anything as there are things you need to do before hand

Interesting to hear that Sprite Backup works without problems for all of you. On my TyTN, when it wants to reboot before beginning a backup, the TyTN gets stuck at the Windows Mobile screen. Removing/re-inserting the battery usually allows the boot process to finish - but only until the next reboot. After that, all subsequent reboots show that behaviour, no matter if initiated by Sprite Backup or otherwise. And very strangley, after a day or two this phenomenon disappears slowly. A hard reset fixes the problem immediately - at least until I re-install Sprite Backup or restore an (executable) backup I made earlier.
What's even more strange is that this seems to be reproducable, even across different ROM versions. I saw that first with the O2 Germany ROM my Trion came with, and also after I updated to the south-african WWE ROM.
Cheers
Daniel

Restoring Sprite Backup after ROM upgrade

Hi all,
If I upgrade the ROM on my Orbit 2, can I use my latest Sprite Backup to restore my personal settings after upgrading?
If not, what settings will I need to manually replace:
e.g.
1) Contacts, appointments, etc. - via activesync
2) Copilot / Tomom - from original SD cards
3) Network settings - using "Connection Setup" program
4) ...
Am I missing anything? I'm worried that after upgrading the ROM I will spend days getting everything back to normal!

At first, you will spend an hour getting everything back to normal. Then, when you become addicted to flashing roms, you will master the "reload" and it will still take an hour (or close to it). I know with PIM backup (as indicated by the name "PIM"), you can only restore appts, sms, email, contacts, phone logs, tasks and the like. Not sure about Sprite but I'm sure you can't do much more...

timpharrison said:
Hi all,
If I upgrade the ROM on my Orbit 2, can I use my latest Sprite Backup to restore my personal settings after upgrading?
If not, what settings will I need to manually replace:
e.g.
1) Contacts, appointments, etc. - via activesync
2) Copilot / Tomom - from original SD cards
3) Network settings - using "Connection Setup" program
4) ...
Am I missing anything? I'm worried that after upgrading the ROM I will spend days getting everything back to normal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The full last version of Sprite Backup (6.x) provide an "upgrade" mode that should allow a user to restore all his data after a ROM update (without touching the OS part). I never tested it as in my concern I spend less than one hour to fully reconfigure my Polaris after a ROM upgrade. But I'll be interested by all experience sharing with tools like Sprite Backup.
Please check directly to Sprite web site for more informations and welcome back with your findings that I'm sure, will interest more than myself

academic said:
The full last version of Sprite Backup (6.x) provide an "upgrade" mode that should allow a user to restore all his data after a ROM update (without touching the OS part). I never tested it as in my concern I spend less than one hour to fully reconfigure my Polaris after a ROM upgrade. But I'll be interested by all experience sharing with tools like Sprite Backup.
Please check directly to Sprite web site for more informations and welcome back with your findings that I'm sure, will interest more than myself
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used it before on my Artemis and believe me, it's crap. Just an backup works fine but when you have switch to another rom, forget about it. Some apps work decent, most of then not. (80%) The only thin you can do to be sure you can go back after an Flash is to dump you're own rom.

It hangs on me
Sprite hangs on me when I want to restore Bepe 0.53 full backup after flashed back to 0.53 from 0.66. I am trying all the ROMs version to see what is best for me and so far 0.53 is what I called baseline for me. It took me only 2 hours to reconfig my device but the damm sw hangs and I waited much longer than that. When it finished, the device does not boot and I have to do a hard reset.
Sprite is crappy so does spb backup. I have not found anything works!

HaiLe512 said:
Sprite hangs on me when I want to restore Bepe 0.53 full backup after flashed back to 0.53 from 0.66. I am trying all the ROMs version to see what is best for me and so far 0.53 is what I called baseline for me. It took me only 2 hours to reconfig my device but the damm sw hangs and I waited much longer than that. When it finished, the device does not boot and I have to do a hard reset.
Sprite is crappy so does spb backup. I have not found anything works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the point. All those back-up progams work well but now when you flash your rom. You really need a dump of your rom to get back to original. For the rest, SPB, Sprite And whatever back-up apps work all well if you just want to play around with apps and return if you don't like them.

Spb Backup too "smart"?

I'm using Spb Backup to make full backups. So far it's OK I even tried to restore after HR and it always worked.
Recently I made another full backup and upgraded to the latest stock ROM from SE service site.
Made restore... I mean the full restore and now I'm trying to figure out did I ruin the ROM upgrade?
I do understand that Spb Backup doesn't change the ROM itself. But what happen when I restore the full backup made with previous R2A to my X1i upgraded to R3A? Does it somehow substitute system files of the newer WinMobile 6.1 R3A with older files from 6.1 R2A?
I don't want to use partial restores (PIM etc.) as soon as it's a long and difficult process to restore all the software and features installed.
Thanks in advice.

The general recommendation is to have a clean start on a new ROM and not to restore from backups - for precisely the reasons you say.
It is indeed a long chore to reinstall everything, but that's the safest way to ensure a clean start.
Some backup programs claim to be able to do upgrade restores, but I've never had much success with them.

Understood. Thanks.

this probably isn't much help but I recently put the r3a on a new xperia from this site then used spb to restore a previous backup from r2a on my previous phone straight from the exe backup (did not install spb backup first).
The only problem i encountered was having to reinstall 1 or 2 applications.

sms2000 said:
I'm using Spb Backup to make full backups. So far it's OK I even tried to restore after HR and it always worked.
Recently I made another full backup and upgraded to the latest stock ROM from SE service site.
Made restore... I mean the full restore and now I'm trying to figure out did I ruin the ROM upgrade?
I do understand that Spb Backup doesn't change the ROM itself. But what happen when I restore the full backup made with previous R2A to my X1i upgraded to R3A? Does it somehow substitute system files of the newer WinMobile 6.1 R3A with older files from 6.1 R2A?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an old and somewhat hoary question.
In short, ROM upgrades always re-organise chunks of the Registry from earlier ROM's. So restoring a previous backup over a ROM upgrade risks conflict with these changes
There are several safer methods for rebuilding on a new ROM:
1) use UC ... many, many posts on this + a 150+ page thread
2) there is a thread on this X1 sub-forum showing how to use a \2577 folder on the card to re-install CAB's as an automated process (Flashaholics Anonymous, I think)
3) if you have most apps installed on the card, a lot will run without re-installation, or at least just the addition of SN etc. Then they won't show up in the "Remove Programs" utility, but to de-install, just delete the folder from the card and then delete the shortcut.
I keep a relatively up-to-date copy of all \Windows\Start Menu\Programs shortcuts in a mirror folder set on the card so restoring these is simple
To test the differences in Registry, use the "Compare" function in the excellent freeware editor CeRegEditor

You will eventually find a bug if you restore a backup file after changing rom versions.

There is a "Force ROM update" mode in the options when you restore. I've never tried it because I like the idea of a clean install when i upgrade a ROM. But if your keen, give it ago.

Scott Whitmore said:
There is a "Force ROM update" mode in the options when you restore. I've never tried it because I like the idea of a clean install when i upgrade a ROM. But if your keen, give it ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And report back with your findnings
I've always wanted to try it, but am too scared

That's a problem that I have no problems...
I restored full SpbBackup without "ROM restore". System reports it's R3A, but Windows Mobile version seems to be the same with R2A. Should it be the same or not?
First I upgraded, second - I restored my backup and only third - I decided to ask this question.
OK with another system Registry organization, I can understand it very well but why any major changes from any 6.1 to another 6.1?
Jumping from 6.1 to 6.5 may and should introduce completely new Registry hives.
Still after restoring full Spb Backup everything works fine, including Hebrew support and fonts, iGo8.3 with A-GPS, additional panels etc.
Anybody with stock [ENG] R3A, please report your Windows Mobile version?

It isn't the operating system that changes - it is all the configurations, tweaks and add-ons that change.
The base OS will still be WM6.1, but there are lots of things that HTC and SE have thrown in to customise the device, and change the look and feel of it, but underneath the hood it is still basically WM6.1.
Your problem will be that you took a backup of the R2AA version which will include lots of settings, registry tweaks, software versions and suchlike. When you restore this over R3AA then you might find that the new and (hopefully) improved R3AA settings/files/whatever get overwritten with the old R2AA settings/files/whatever.
You may be okay and never notice the difference, or you might run into any number of problems...freezes, lockups, crashes, instabilities...and you're unlikely to ever figure out why.
Hence, the generally accepted wisdom is to use backup restorations to test experimental ROM upgrades, but to install from scratch if you decide to settle on a different ROM.

I think the only thing that will harm your system is when you choose to merge the old registry values with the new one. It's all the registry settings that can get confused with the new ROM.

Mr Anderson said:
It isn't the operating system that changes - it is all the configurations, tweaks and add-ons that change.
The base OS will still be WM6.1, but there are lots of things that HTC and SE have thrown in to customise the device, and change the look and feel of it, but underneath the hood it is still basically WM6.1.
Your problem will be that you took a backup of the R2AA version which will include lots of settings, registry tweaks, software versions and suchlike. When you restore this over R3AA then you might find that the new and (hopefully) improved R3AA settings/files/whatever get overwritten with the old R2AA settings/files/whatever.
You may be okay and never notice the difference, or you might run into any number of problems...freezes, lockups, crashes, instabilities...and you're unlikely to ever figure out why.
Hence, the generally accepted wisdom is to use backup restorations to test experimental ROM upgrades, but to install from scratch if you decide to settle on a different ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But isn't it fine to restore just emails, contacts, tasks?
Without all the tweaks, settings...

doministry said:
But isn't it fine to restore just emails, contacts, tasks?
Without all the tweaks, settings...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes, that kind of stuff is alright - things like emails, PIM data and any other database files used by the software (stuff like saved game files, SplashID databases, saved settings for things like PhoneWeaver, PocketPlus etc).
If you sift through the backup and do selective restoration of just the databases then you should be fine.
It's mainly the registry settings you have to worry about, as poetryrocksalot says. However, you should also avoid restoring anything which comes with the HTC or SE customisations (such as panels, HTC task manager etc) because you risk losing newer software versions and could introduce incompatibilities between old/new files.

backup?? i can't think of a title for this one.

Hi all,
I have a question... i use a few htc devices and love changing and trying different roms, different configs, etc... but whenever i get a good config i like, i would love to have a copy of the phone as-is.. i mean, that if one day i want to load that config back, i could just install like a rom with all the settings and config set just the way i want...
am i clear??? i think i lost myself there
anyways, i suppose creating some sort of rom from the phone set up, i could perhaps just flash it just back... i'm not sure which way to go....
any help or pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated
by the way, xda rules. no doubt about it.

What you need is called Backup software ,my friend
There are plenty of them: SPB Backup,Sprite Backup, SKTools...
Personally i had problems with SPB and adopted Sprite. You can do a full backup of your device which saves all data and settings; then you'll be able to restore at any time the whole saved configuration as you traveled back in time
Note: backup files (stored in SD) are self-extracting, that means that restore can begin immediately after a hard-reset by just tapping the backup file: no need to install the backup app first!
P.s.: For a "partial" backup that saves only data related to phone and agenda (contacts,appointments,mail,SMS etc..) there's a free app called PIM Backup.

sualc said:
What you need is called Backup software ,my friend
There are plenty of them: SPB Backup,Sprite Backup, SKTools...
Personally i had problems with SPB and adopted Sprite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Sprite as standard on my T-Mobile Compact V, and I have just used it. I am familiar with disk imaging on PCs, but I am not sure how mobile pdas work. Is this equivalent to a disk image? Somehow, I feel it is not. For example, I doubt if I could restore onto a new phone - or could I?

In my experience, with Sprite Backup I am able to completely restore a previous situation even after a hard reset. This works as long as you don't change ROM: it is absolutely not advisable to restore a backup in a different phone/ROM from which it was created.
Backup for Mobiles works exactly like Backup for PC, you have the same facility in your desktop Windows: you can make a full backup, format your hardisk and have back the whole config with All files by restoring the backup file, it's as simple as that
As a personal example: I have 2 completely different WM operating systems, depending on the SIM i decide to put in...when needed,I can easily switch between one and another within 10 minutes without needing a PC, and that's cool

sualc said:
This works as long as you don't change ROM: it is absolutely not advisable to restore a backup in a different phone/ROM from which it was created
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So this differs from drive images, which may include all the operating system. The ROM is not part of the backup, right? And for there to be such a backup that includes the ROM, one would have to install it with a remote operating system, right?

I confirm that ROM is not included in the backup, that's why it's not recommended to restore on a different ROM and why i wouldn't compare it to a diskimage too. But the backup is able to restore the configuration of that specific rom (e.g. if a-gps was disabled when backup was made, then you'll restore an a-gps disabled config)

[Question] How to backup complete ROM FROM HD2?

Hello,
I'm sorry if I shouldn't post this here, but I think this is the right place.
Please, is there any solution how to make complete ROM image from my tweaked HD2? I've installed official ROM (1.48), changed some registry settings, installed some programs and now I want to put this tweaked ROM to another HD2 mobile.
Thank you very much!

yes, use spb backup, it makes a full backup, custom backup or scheduled backup of anything. I am using it and its verry good at what it does.

Thanks.
SPB backup can backup the full ROM and anything else (all programs, registry tweaks, localization) and recovery that to another phone, totally from scratch?: )

yes SPB backup can backup the full ROM and anything else (all programs, registry tweaks, localization) and restore that, but if that other phone is a different brand i dont know how the backup will solve compatibility issues regarding registry or 3rd party settings.

I don't think so
My (official) ROM had 180MB, then I installed some programs and SPBBackup has now only 80MB. So I think SPBBackup doesn't backup all the windows files.
I need a tool, which can create image (LEOIMG.nbh) for use with CustomRUU.exe on another HTC HD2.

i guess i misunderstood your point, in this case you'll have to use some cooking rom utilities, see Rom thread for this. sorry.

Anyway, thank you.

I take it that you want to clone the device?! As long as you are using two identical devices (i.e. two HTC HD2's) SpriteClone could be your answer. Try here: http://www.spritesoftware.com/products/sprite-clone
Hope this helps.
Phil