Database Users

which is the best tested backup utility for the WIZARD?

I am planing on a ROM upgrade, I don't want to lose all my settings, so I am looking at a backup utility. I read a lot about sprite backup, is there a TOP list that I can choose from? Share good/bad experience pls.
10x

I have good results with spb backup http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/backup/?en
Creates a executable on the storage card so no need for pc. Other users given good reports.
Problem is with rom upgrade it may not work out as registry settings and other files will not be the same???. Dont know if sprite does the same. You will have to do manual backup of all the relevent files i guess.

I would also recommend SPB backup.

GliTCH82 said:
I would also recommend SPB backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too. it is the best utility for backup.

GliTCH82 said:
I would also recommend SPB backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed from SPB Backup to Sprite Backup. This one is more versatile. You can better choose what to backup or to restore. Make sure you install on your SD-card, so you can use it after a hard reset.

Mesias said:
GliTCH82 said:
I would also recommend SPB backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed from SPB Backup to Sprite Backup. This one is more versatile. You can better choose what to backup or to restore. Make sure you install on your SD-card, so you can use it after a hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zou can do the same with SPB backup. and by the way, who needs a serial for spb backup, pm me

I've always used Sprite Premium Backup in the past with WM2003/SE devices, and I have had to restore from a backup on many occasions. Never let me down. It creates a self-extracting backup on a storage card, and it also has a PC component that allows backups to your PC when connected via a USB port.
Unfortunately Sprite was without a solution for backing up WM5 devices for quite a while.
So I picked up SPB Backup, as mentioned by many other users here. SPB Backup appears to work fine, at least as far as creating the backups and storing them on my storage card. However I have not yet had to try to restore my device from a backup made with SPB Backup - which is the only real test that can be performed. And I don't feel like wiping out all my data just to test the SPB Backups.
Any backup application can appear to run fine; it's the "put it all back and make everything OK again!" part of any backup program that will make you love it or hate it!
Has anyone here who says that SPB Backup is working great for them ever attempted to restore yet? Not that I don't think that it will...
I would just like to hear that has successfully restored someone's device - it'll make me feel a lot better!

J-Mac said:
I've always used Sprite Premium Backup in the past with WM2003/SE devices, and I have had to restore from a backup on many occasions. Never let me down. It creates a self-extracting backup on a storage card, and it also has a PC component that allows backups to your PC when connected via a USB port.
Unfortunately Sprite was without a solution for backing up WM5 devices for quite a while.
So I picked up SPB Backup, as mentioned by many other users here. SPB Backup appears to work fine, at least as far as creating the backups and storing them on my storage card. However I have not yet had to try to restore my device from a backup made with SPB Backup - which is the only real test that can be performed. And I don't feel like wiping out all my data just to test the SPB Backups.
Any backup application can appear to run fine; it's the "put it all back and make everything OK again!" part of any backup program that will make you love it or hate it!
Has anyone here who says that SPB Backup is working great for them ever attempted to restore yet? Not that I don't think that it will...
I would just like to hear that has successfully restored someone's device - it'll make me feel a lot better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've restorfed backups many times, as I tested various ROMS for the Wizard. each time i put a new ROM, I perform a backup restore from my card.

J-Mac said:
I've always used Sprite Premium Backup in the past with WM2003/SE devices, and I have had to restore from a backup on many occasions. Never let me down. It creates a self-extracting backup on a storage card, and it also has a PC component that allows backups to your PC when connected via a USB port.
Unfortunately Sprite was without a solution for backing up WM5 devices for quite a while.
So I picked up SPB Backup, as mentioned by many other users here. SPB Backup appears to work fine, at least as far as creating the backups and storing them on my storage card. However I have not yet had to try to restore my device from a backup made with SPB Backup - which is the only real test that can be performed. And I don't feel like wiping out all my data just to test the SPB Backups.
Any backup application can appear to run fine; it's the "put it all back and make everything OK again!" part of any backup program that will make you love it or hate it!
Has anyone here who says that SPB Backup is working great for them ever attempted to restore yet? Not that I don't think that it will...
I would just like to hear that has successfully restored someone's device - it'll make me feel a lot better!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it has without a hitch!

naughty said:
I am planing on a ROM upgrade, I don't want to lose all my settings, so I am looking at a backup utility. I read a lot about sprite backup, is there a TOP list that I can choose from? Share good/bad experience pls.
10x
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
naughty,
After I posted I re-read your post and realized what you are hoping to do.
A word of advice - don't!
Backups are great for restoring your device after a hard reset - especially those most-hated unexpected hard resets.
But for a ROM upgrade, you really want to start with a completely clean device. Your device most likely has a lot of abandoned registry entries, shortcuts, and general crap that you really don't want cluttering things up after a ROM update. I do a lot of beta testing so I always have a lot of crap left over from continually installing and uninstalling applications.
On any device running WM5 has, to some degree, a problem with uninstalling and/or upgrading programs. It's a Microsoft bug that hasn't been fully corrected yet. So even if you think that you have kept the device clean, it has junk left over from every time you had difficulty uninstalling something.
For any hard reset where you are just reinstalling exactly what you had before the reset, by all means, restore from a backup.
But for a ROM upgrade, I would advise against it.

J-Mac said:
But for a ROM upgrade, I would advise against it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was suspecting something like this..
I will probably delay the ROM upgrade, now that I think I have to re-do my
1. Voice dials
2. GPRS settings (my provider doesn't have wutomatic)
3. MMS settings
4. Email settings.
5. the installed software should be re-installed and configured..

Does anybody know what files contain the contacts, calender, tasks, notes etc. (The equivalent of the .pst files in Outlook)

i belive at the root level in file explorer, there is a file called PIM. I think that is it. Pretty sure.

Claudio said:
Does anybody know what files contain the contacts, calender, tasks, notes etc. (The equivalent of the .pst files in Outlook)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to be able to view the databases on your device. These are not readily available via the file explorer.
You can see them with some third-party applications, such as SK-Tools amd Mem-Maid.
You cannot view the contents of the DBs except by looking at your contacts, calendar, etc.
Actually I have heard that someone has created or updated an app that does let you view individual items in DBs. Not sure which one offhand, but I'll post back if I find out.

I'm with Jmac on this.
I went from 287 to 217 ROM afterwhich I restored my apps with SPB.
The new comm mgr was overlaid, activesync is no longer active nor does it sync and some stuff don't work ne more.
SPB only provides the option to selectively restore PIM, system and ? (something else). It doesn't have the option to restore specific apps.
Tonight when I flash again, I'm going to manually install my stuff again and just use Activesync to get my PIM data.

Claudio said:
Does anybody know what files contain the contacts, calender, tasks, notes etc. (The equivalent of the .pst files in Outlook)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes pim.vol in the root directory of the device contains all contacts and appts - copy to storage card as backup

dimushor said:
Mesias said:
GliTCH82 said:
I would also recommend SPB backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed from SPB Backup to Sprite Backup. This one is more versatile. You can better choose what to backup or to restore. Make sure you install on your SD-card, so you can use it after a hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zou can do the same with SPB backup. and by the way, who needs a serial for spb backup, pm me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Um, no you can't. You can select specific files and folders to backup but you cannot restore when you are away from your PC. Sprite allows selective restores even on the device itself.
A word of advice - don't!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of time I would agree with you. However, with Sprite's restore after upgrade feature, you can safely restore a backup. I have done it several times on pre-WM5 devices and Sprite has updated the current WM5 version to do the same.

JNGold,
I understand that Sprite just released 5.1 a day or two ago; that's the version thar is supposed to do this.
Have you tried 5.1 yet to see if it works now?

JNGold said:
dimushor said:
Mesias said:
GliTCH82 said:
I would also recommend SPB backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I changed from SPB Backup to Sprite Backup. This one is more versatile. You can better choose what to backup or to restore. Make sure you install on your SD-card, so you can use it after a hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
zou can do the same with SPB backup. and by the way, who needs a serial for spb backup, pm me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Um, no you can't. You can select specific files and folders to backup but you cannot restore when you are away from your PC. Sprite allows selective restores even on the device itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How come? I always do restore from my miniSD card.

The new SpriteBackup also allows to create self-installing/self-extracting backups. Works great on my Wizard. I restored backups several times - without any problems.

Backup Device Info

Is there any way to backup the device info such as contacts, SMS, MMS, Email etc. and then restore it back to device.
I plan eventual ROM upgrade and i was interested in keeping my data.

osavioro said:
Is there any way to backup the device info such as contacts, SMS, MMS, Email etc. and then restore it back to device.
I plan eventual ROM upgrade and i was interested in keeping my data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the Data (contacts, appointments, email) should be "backed" in your Outlook ...
And you should google for SPB Backup.

Thanks saminegm.
I have SPB backup now. Is it 100% safe to use. Does it preserve the infornmation ... anybody have comments ?
P.S. I was wondering whether it can backup settings like Data Connectivity, GPRS & MMS settings, Messenger e.t.c.

what you want is PIM Backup

SPB Backup backs up the entire PDA, i use it on my Alpine and backup to an SD card, from a hard reset i can then restore the Alpine to exactly the way it was before the reset.

Sprite Backup claims to work after a ROM upgrade but I have never tried that feature.

Thanks alot for Your answers.

deedee said:
SPB Backup backs up the entire PDA, i use it on my Alpine and backup to an SD card, from a hard reset i can then restore the Alpine to exactly the way it was before the reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SPB backup whole device and cna restore whole device on the SAME ROM. Is is not advisable to restore a full backup made over a different rom. So, you can use SPB but doing a customized backup of just your pim data or you can use PIM Backup, or just use outlook + activesync to do the same.
I agree that PIM Backup 2.5 is the best solution, except for notes that you can backup manually coping files on you sd card.
Ciao

What backup software to use before flashing ROm?

hi guys
what backup software would you recommend to use before flashing to another rom ?
I mainly want to back up :
sms
contacts
email msgs and mailboxes
if it could save settings (like for email, mms, connection settings) that would be bonus
I have SPBbackup but it just freezes ...
thanks ....

omarko said:
hi guys
what backup software would you recommend to use before flashing to another rom ?
I mainly want to back up :
sms
contacts
email msgs and mailboxes
if it could save settings (like for email, mms, connection settings) that would be bonus
I have SPBbackup but it just freezes ...
thanks ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PIM Backup

djwarden said:
PIM Backup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that.
Works wonderfull and you can even schedule a time in the day that it automaticly makes a backup for you.
Also, besides all the stuff you mentioned, you can also make backups of directories you like most (for example you wallpapers)
here's the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=299705

any possibility to completely back up and restore after flashing ROM?

U can use SPB Backup (or Sprite) as well (cost $$)

roisagi said:
any possibility to completely back up and restore after flashing ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean with a complete backup?

roisagi said:
any possibility to completely back up and restore after flashing ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with PIM you can set 'Custom' items (folders, fie types etc)

How to do full backup and restore?

Hi,
I'm looking for a solution for backing up my HD2.
What I need is to be able to fully backup and then restore the current snapshot of files, applications, registry, pim data, etc. So I'd like to have the same data on my PDA after restore like it was at the time of the backup. For each and every bit
I know there is SPB Backup and Sprite and other stuff. I'm just not sure, they backup and restore ALL data there is on my machine. Is there sth like an image creator for WM like there is Norton Ghost and True Image for Windows PC?
Thx,
Bruce

I use Sprite Backup which has from the main screen 5 options.
1. Backup ~ which performs a one step backup of your device including the files you mention.
2. Restore ~ which restores your device to a known configuration.
3. Custom Backup ~ which allows you to break the backup down from areas:-
Pocket PC
PIM (inc sub sections)
Mail (inc sub sections)
My Documents (inc sub sections)
System Data (inc sub sections)
Storage Card (inc sub sections - basically the entire card)
4. Schedule ~ which performs a scheduled backup.
5. Options ~ Modifies Backup & Restore settings.
Just backup to your storage card and when the time comes to restore simply load the backup file.... no need to first re-install Sprite.

Beards said:
I use Sprite Backup which has from the main screen 5 options.
1. Backup ~ which performs a one step backup of your device including the files you mention.
2. Restore ~ which restores your device to a known configuration.
3. Custom Backup ~ which allows you to break the backup down from areas:-
Pocket PC
PIM (inc sub sections)
Mail (inc sub sections)
My Documents (inc sub sections)
System Data (inc sub sections)
Storage Card (inc sub sections - basically the entire card)
4. Schedule ~ which performs a scheduled backup.
5. Options ~ Modifies Backup & Restore settings.
Just backup to your storage card and when the time comes to restore simply load the backup file.... no need to first re-install Sprite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have tried SpritaBackup for ROM Upgrade and tried all avaliable methods.
None of them restored the Contacts and the Calendar data.
Other Overwritten the MultyLanguage support files which caused the MUI to act in unexpected ways.
I dont really know if there is any reliable backup software out there . . .

Som30ne said:
Well, I have tried SpritaBackup for ROM Upgrade and tried all avaliable methods.
None of them restored the Contacts and the Calendar data.
Other Overwritten the MultyLanguage support files which caused the MUI to act in unexpected ways.
I dont really know if there is any reliable backup software out there . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not tried it from a ROM upgrade but from a normal Hard reset I can restore all my data with Sprite.
It would rather be a pointless piece of software if it did not restore your contacts and calendar don't you think.

Beards said:
I have not tried it from a ROM upgrade but from a normal Hard reset I can restore all my data with Sprite.
It would rather be a pointless piece of software if it did not restore your contacts and calendar don't you think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It probably is . . .
Thankfully I had it sync'ed with outlook, so I didnt lose anything,
but - I was VERY disappointed.

After ROM upgrade you don't want full restore. That would overwrite possibly new registry entries and files, undoing partially ROM upgrade.
You only want to restore all what you have installed and changed. AFAIK there is no way to do that.

Som30ne said:
It probably is . . .
Thankfully I had it sync'ed with outlook, so I didnt lose anything,
but - I was VERY disappointed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just checked the 'Custom List' and under PIM it lists:-
Speed Dial
Call Logs
Contacts
Calendar
Tasks
Categories
pim.vol
Under Mail it lists:-
cemail.vol
Messaging

Beards said:
I've just checked the 'Custom List' and under PIM it lists:-
Speed Dial
Call Logs
Contacts
Calendar
Tasks
Categories
pim.vol
Under Mail it lists:-
cemail.vol
Messaging
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my list PIM.vol was set with a grayed out X
and the bottom line is - it just did not restore that data with whatever method I selected.
(It did restore the files in "My Documents" - at least the ones I looked for,
hopefully there are no files that were skipped or that I would find sometime in the future that files had disappeared)

Som30ne said:
On my list PIM.vol was set with a grayed out X
and the bottom line is - it just did not restore that data with whatever method I selected.
(It did restore the files in "My Documents" - at least the ones I looked for,
hopefully there are no files that were skipped or that I would find sometime in the future that files had disappeared)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Pim.vol is not greyed out.
I can tick/untick it if I wish.

Only Sprite V 6.5.5.6 supports WM6.5 so make sure you have that version. Sprites ROM Update routines have always been a little flakey, but a simple backup/restore from Hard Reset ought to work fine unless you finish up restoring the software fault that led to the need for reset.
Spb Backup does exactly the same things, but has a better ROM upgrade routine. Again, you must have the latest version to support Wm 6.5

Reference using Sprite Backup on ROM Upgrades:-
One of the items mentioned is.....
Upgrade Mode Recovery - Restore to a replacement device or after a ROM Upgrade

Beards said:
My Pim.vol is not greyed out.
I can tick/untick it if I wish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm . . .
Maybe as NeilM said, It's a version problem, although Im sure I had the latest version.

Oooo , im using SPB Backup & it works great from HTC Touch Pro to HTC Touch HD and now HTC Touch HD2 . I have restore my PIM and ringtones as well from time to time without any problems . Im using full backupas well , but more preferable restore to same built .

bronson25 said:
Oooo , im using SPB Backup & it works great from HTC Touch Pro to HTC Touch HD and now HTC Touch HD2 . I have restore my PIM and ringtones as well from time to time without any problems . Im using full backupas well , but more preferable restore to same built .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have heared that SPB backup has problems with backing up and restoring SMS and mail accounts (the content is fine, but the account is added but does not show and cannot be accessed).
And from my own experience with the SPB backup -
It had problems saving the sync ID of ActiveSync - meaning each time I restored a backup the ActiveSync (On the the desktop computer) said that the device is already Sync'ed with another computer, although Im sync'ing with a single computer, and the definitions on the mobile device shows the computer name assigned to that single computer.
So I had to sync as-if Im sync'ing with a second computer, and then - delete the "old" computer - and this causes mail sync problems, since you can only sync mail with a single computer.

I know SPB Backup restored my HD2 perfectly. have done this many times when testing betas. It also have a ROM upgrade feature but I normally prefer to install afresh after upgrades except for PIM data which SPB BU allows me to restore on its own.
I am not sure about syncing SMS and email accounts with PC since I only use the PC to install programs. All my emails are accounted for each time I do a restore to the same ROM. I had issues with Sprite, that was why I switched to SPB BU from my Omnia-HD-Omnia II and now HD2, all with no issues.

Updating ROM to 1.66 backup ??

hi, im about to update to the latest ROM 1.66 and have started backing up my data. ive copied my contacts onto the SIM but how do i export all my text messages, if i try to copy onto SIM they are too big so i need to export somehow ?? many thanks in advance

andi1977dog said:
hi, im about to update to the latest ROM 1.66 and have started backing up my data. ive copied my contacts onto the SIM but how do i export all my text messages, if i try to copy onto SIM they are too big so i need to export somehow ?? many thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use a free program called PIM backup. It will backup and restore all emails, txt, contacts, etc.

Or use the build in option 'Microsoft My Phone', but you need a live account for this (msn). Works great though!

You can also use apps such as SPB Backup.
SPB Backup will infact backup the entire system for you including everything you may have installed.

thanks !
loads of good suggestions.

Audio Oblivion said:
You can also use apps such as SPB Backup.
SPB Backup will infact backup the entire system for you including everything you may have installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, you cannot use SPB Backup and backup to a different ROM, you will get errors.