Database Users

Backing up contacts before hard reset

Since having my TP2 i've been having a good old play with reg entries, getting rid of the voda branding, themes, had a tinker with loads of software.. but now my phone is doing a couple of anoying things and i wanna do a hard reset.... it doesnt pick up mms messages anymore and drops the call 90% of the time when i use the slide-to-answer thing.... I know the tweaks and software i wanna use now, so a hard reset seems like a good idea.
Whats the best way to go about backing up my contacts and keep the multiple numbers/email addresses/ facebook links / and if poss.... pictures associated with each contact ?

I just copy the pim.vol file from the root to my storage card using totalcommander, then copy it back when I have hard reset. Then do a soft reset and all is sorted

PIM Backup appears to be popular around here.

nice one peeps... ta... another proggy to add to my 'good shizzle' list

ohyeahar said:
PIM Backup appears to be popular around here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. I end up resetting my devices a lot cos I'm always installing all sorts of applications that eventually mess up my OS.
I even used this to transfer all my contacts, appointments & messages from my Gene to the Rhodium.
Just remember to be patient after restoring sms's. Especially if you have a lot. It will slow down your device quite a but while it sifts through all your messages and puts them into the conversation format.

Is there a backup program that will restore everything before a crash.
Somthing that will restore all my program's.
When i mess som things up i must do a hard reset and i need to install every program again.
can it be faster.
pim backup wil restore only my numbers en sms isn't??????
Thx and sorry for the bad english

janshuizing said:
Is there a backup program that will restore everything before a crash.
Somthing that will restore all my program's.
When i mess som things up i must do a hard reset and i need to install every program again.
can it be faster.
pim backup wil restore only my numbers en sms isn't??????
Thx and sorry for the bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprite Backup(not free) will backup everything including
your storage card, if you use the custom settings.
​

tkalli said:
Sprite Backup(not free) will backup everything including
your storage card, if you use the custom settings.
​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The custom settings of sprite or mine device?????
I dit some tweaks on mine decive of is that not a problem.
thx

Sprite backup can create a backup of your device, including your storage card. That's what the previous poster meant. You have to use custom settings to do this.
There is also Resco and SPB Backup so there is plenty of choice. Just try them since they are trials before you buy

AHA oke thx for the answer

Online and offline options
Personally I've been using Spb Backup and found it's reliable and reasonably quick (configuarable too). Did have some problems with using it either side of a ROM upgrade though... but, dare I say it or will I get booed... Microsoft seem to have done something right for once and their myphone over the air (wifi or 3G) backup service (beta) seems to work well and allows transfer of data to different phones and on either side of a ROM upgrade (you will obviously need a good data plan or wifi though)...
Link...
http://myphone.microsoft.com/mkweb/Start.po?mkt=en-US&ocid=sem_enus_g-myphone

I second the Sprite backup but if all you want is contacts it's hard to beat outlook.

What about MyPhone by Microsoft? It will not only backup your contacts (on a schedule too) but your sms,docs, music etc over the network or Wifi. You then can also logon to the website from anywhere and access them online!
edit: that will teach me to fast read the thread

Upgraded ROM - 'People' still there??!

Hi,
Very confused about what happened during a ROM upgrade..
I went from 1.43 to 1.48, immediately following which I did a hard reset (perhaps not strictly necessary however commonly believed to be best practise when flashing ROMs).
HD2 started up, did it's initialization customisations, asked for my provider etc. I then went through and configured my connection with my Exchange Server and all my data sync'd up - all normal so far.
So now I had a fresh install, just with my Exchange data on (contacts / calendar / email etc). Definitely a clean install (just to emphasis the point!) as obviously my app shortcuts weren't there from the home screen, my weather cities of choice weren't there but instead the default, etc etc etc. All as expected.
BUT..
I flicked to the People (contacts) section of Sense (the second tab by default) and to my surprise there were the six faces of the people I had configured previously!! They were in the wrong order (no logic to the new order) but yup they were there!! VERY STRANGE!!
The only thing I can think of is either a) such configuration is stored on the storage card (which obviously isn't wiped during ROM upgrade) or b) it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Any comments??! Even if just to confirm? Or am I going completely mad!!

Same here - very random - my photos and music have been juggled around too...

SimonW500 said:
Hi,
it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.

Thanks for the quick reply and confirmation - good to know I'm not going mad!
So can someone explain how this is done? ie. kept on storage card / sync'd back to Exchange / AN Other?
I'm particularly concerned if it is sync'd back to Exchange, as until now I often try quite a few Windows Mobile devices and enter in my Exchange details etc on the assumption that nothing that particular device does is actually kept once I wipe the phone.

Audio Oblivion said:
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow - another amazing quick response!!
Excellent - thanks for the info - well spotted! Now despite my above comment I can live with this more than happily, actually see it as a useful feature!
Thanks again.

Moving People around?
Following on from the above (loosely!)..
Is there an easy way to move the ordering of these shortcuts around?
Being the picky individual that I am (!) I have them in a certain order, which effectively means that even though the right people are 'remembered' I still have to delete and create them all again to put them in the right order.
Thanks again..

Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..

Kridek said:
Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..

People
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.

Pure data
Pure data is great, but once there are uc(user customisation) compliant Leo roms, there will be available, a beautiful way of reconstructing about 80% of all settings, applications and shortcuts. It restores all one's customisation in pristine order, with only the new rom's updated functions.
SimonW500 said:
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xaddict said:
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.

Activesync issues
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
p.s. I'm not sure I want to flash roms the way I did on my HD,
but when I was doing it, activesync gave me a lot of problems.
SimonW500 said:
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Xaddict said:
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - very true! For this reason I try to take a copy of all my contacts within Outlook at least once a month; both protects me from any wayward devices as well as any modifications I may make and then regret (change of numbers, deletions etc!).

I love this feature
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.

lucid said:
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I upgraded from HD to HD2, as soon as i sync with exchange i got my favs back in the correct order with all my emails , text messages etc etc.

Backup Software Problem

Hi,
I've used SPB backup for years on my PDA's so when I backed up my HD2, everything looked like it backed up ok. Had to hard reset the HD2 but didn't think much about it because I had a backup exe. Ran the exe twice and nothing changed. Im pretty sure I have the latest version that is compatible with WM 6.5.
Do you have to turn off HT sense in order for the back up to work properly?
I've read in the forum that others have had good luck with Sprite, anyone use either of these programs successfully?
Thanks for any insight you can provide
Mike

mhmobile said:
Hi,
I've used SPB backup for years on my PDA's so when I backed up my HD2, everything looked like it backed up ok. Had to hard reset the HD2 but didn't think much about it because I had a backup exe. Ran the exe twice and nothing changed. Im pretty sure I have the latest version that is compatible with WM 6.5.
Do you have to turn off HT sense in order for the back up to work properly?
I've read in the forum that others have had good luck with Sprite, anyone use either of these programs successfully?
Thanks for any insight you can provide
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used SPB successfully, except for the fact that when sync'ing after restore, the PC does not recognize the device as a device that was already connected, and sets up a new Mobile-pc connection (which makes a second connection on the mobile, and can cause problem sync'ing mail).
I have read that others had problems with restored SMSs when using SPB, I did not check that.
I had a VERY BAD experience with the Sprite backup.
I just would NOT restore the contacts and calendar data,
and messed up the multi-language support after ROM upgrade,
no matter what restore method I selected.
So -
in my experience concludes that - NO backup program is reliable.

Depending on what you want from your backup solution, Microsoft MyPhone is particularly good!
It syncs data to & from an online store where you can view it via a web interface. You can sync your data with MyPhone, hard reset the device, sync your data again and it's just back.
What's more, you can set it to automatically sync data on a periodic basis. I have it run a sync at 4am every day, and it's only ever failed a couple of times, and I've been using it for over 6 months now!
Have a look at it - it should be on your phone, but it's in the marketplace if it's not there. Alternatively, just google MyPhone.
Hope this helps

johncmolyneux said:
Depending on what you want from your backup solution, Microsoft MyPhone is particularly good!
It syncs data to & from an online store where you can view it via a web interface. You can sync your data with MyPhone, hard reset the device, sync your data again and it's just back.
What's more, you can set it to automatically sync data on a periodic basis. I have it run a sync at 4am every day, and it's only ever failed a couple of times, and I've been using it for over 6 months now!
Have a look at it - it should be on your phone, but it's in the marketplace if it's not there. Alternatively, just google MyPhone.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, right,
just the small fact they dont back up the data on their servers make it just as unreliable.
(The server crashed no too long ago, and they had no backup, and many users lost their data)
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/N...rver-failure-causes-smartphone-data-loss.aspx
http://www.scmagazineus.com/microsoft-server-failure-causes-sidekick-data-loss/article/152114/

Som30ne said:
Yeah, right,
just the small fact they dont back up the data on their servers make it just as unreliable.
(The server crashed no too long ago, and they had no backup, and many users lost their data)
http://www.securecomputing.net.au/N...rver-failure-causes-smartphone-data-loss.aspx
http://www.scmagazineus.com/microsoft-server-failure-causes-sidekick-data-loss/article/152114/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you rely 100% on a backup then you are gonna get screwed sometimes. Like I said, mine syncs daily, so even if it didn't work for a couple of days I wouldn't actually lose any data unless my phone went down.
So basically, if everything fails then yes, you'll lose your data.
Anyway, neither of the articles you linked even mentions the MyPhone service.
Thanks for the info though

Just as a matter of interest, cloud services like MyPhone seem to be on the increase. However who is asking the questions of these service providers as to how safe and secure our data really is?
So if I upload a thousand contacts onto MyPhone how do I know that someone isn't going to get their hands on that data or, worse still, use it for either commercial advantage or nefarious purposes?
I am not against cloud services per se; however these services, including MyLocation, seem to be getting accepted without any of us either fully understanding how secure all this data is, who actually holds it, what the impacts are on our right to privacy, etc, etc.
Just asking the question chaps. Interested in your sensible views.
WB

I'm with you, WB, I suspect we (the global "we") are losing our grip on our data and privacy without even realising it.
personally I just sync with outlook for contacts and mails and I backup outlook every week or so. I doubt ill use cloud services for some time to come.

hey dude, i am using spb backup i hard reset lots of times because i trial lots of softwares, till this date never had any problems! SPB been really reliable

I've been using SK Tools to backup my HD2 since I got it. It works fine with the HD2 except for one small but weird issue.
The first time I restored a backup from SK Tools, it restored everything just fine, except, when in ActiveSync, I could not copy or write to the phone, nor could I install new software on the phone. It seems like the permissions on the phone had been changed to "Read Only" for all files and folder. However, if I then connected the HD2 to my PC, but select it to connect as an external drive, I could then perform read/write data from/to the SD card. However, if I started to install a new .cab file from the SD card it would still fail during installation.
The way to overcome this issue, was for me to perform a hard reset, connect the phone to my PC with ActiveSync, perform a read/write to/from the phone, then after that, do the restore with SK Tools. If a file had been read and written to the phone/SD card with Activesync prior to the restore, it would then restore perfectly, and everything will be back to normal.
Other than this one weird issue, I haven't had any problems with using SK Tools for backup.

Had always good experience with Sprite Backup, used it on "O2 Orbit II", HTC Touch HD, and now using Sprite Backup on HD2.
On HD2 i didn't need a Image restore yet, but I do not expect to get a problem in this case.
File restore worked well!
Using the default Sprite Backup configuration contacts, calendar and tasks will not be backed up, because in the case of a Image restore Sprite-Software says you can get double entries afterwards when sync with Outlook.
manilla

Thanks all for your input, maybe this was just a glitch. I'll stick with SPB unless it happens again...

I've tried Sprite Backup and SPB Backup to get my call history and SMS's on to my HD2 (from a TyTN2) but have a problem with the results form both. Messages display in the Sense tab, and in the "all messages" list if the traditional non-conversational view mode is used they all display correctly and can be opened and viewed. If I leave the phone in conversation view however, I can't view any of the conversations. The conversations appear in the list, but if I tap any of them it goes straight bcak to the Sense tab showing the newest message. Photos for contacts are also not displayed against the conversations. If I send a text to someone it starts a new conversation and displays the photo. These new conversations open properly when you go back to them.
I can't work out what is causing this, anyone else had this problem?

How to back up your HD2

right first things first ive done a few searches and coldnt find anything
I would like to know what you guys use to back up your phone. Im mainly after backing up my sms inbox, contacts and installed apps and settings. Ive had to factory reset my phone twice in the passed week lol lost everything and now have it tweeked to my liking now. so I best back up everything asap incase
thanks for any replies

Hi..
there is an app called microsoft my phone , on the start windows tab,,
regards
op

and i dont fancy paying £18.19 for SPRITE BACKUP

the_operator said:
Hi..
there is an app called microsoft my phone , on the start windows tab,,
regards
op
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with this guy....I use Microsoft "My Phone" too....I like to mess with my phone and this program syncs everything that I need and stores it online. I can even access and make changes from my PC if I feel the need. Everytime I change my ROM I just sync it up and all my contacts, calendar etc are back on the phone!

Seem those guys never upgrade their phone, uh!
Every time you have to re-enter all config stufs (e.g. e-mails accounts & passwords, connections settings, and so on); everything can be saved by ActiveSync or My Phone EXCEPT those specific configs!!!
I just found CeRegistryEditor (link to ceregeditor.mdsoft.pl/?lang=en): it allows to backup & compare registry entries with file(s) by using ActiveSync connection.
Everytime you add/change some specific settings just compare entries with previously saved one and save it with mnemonic name; once you re-initialize your phone just load all saved keys, of course without forgetting to re-install all related programs, if needed!
Your phone will be just as you want in a couple of minutes. That's it!
rg,
Stefano

Definitely SPB Backup.
Give that a shot... it's a costly bit of software... but completely worthy.

Sprite Backup is a must for anyone, especially for those who wants to do some tweaking.

sprite back up
Exactly 12 hours ago my Leo 's sence stopped launching and I was in a horrible time.I had collected 79 nice opera bookmarks and doing a hard reset should clean all of them !
spb back up was not the solution ,cause it can't back up favourites.and Microsoft my phone couldn't sync cause the wi-fi was dead ! so I beamed up Sprite back up tool from my old Hd .
and it selected percisely what I wanted...I think spb phone plus or suit has the same function for backing up favourites but SPRITE is perfect.

I want to back up my hd2 too, can anyone tell me how to use Activesync for backing up plz

Hi,
i think you can't use AS for backup. You could copy all the user-data and programm folders but not the registry entries. You need special backup software for this purpose. I know Spb Backup and Sprite. Although i ve registered bith i mainlay use Spb because it works better for me. I think it is worth his money.
Bernhard

Re: HD2 backup
Personally I store everything on the storage card - and use Jeyo Mobile Companion to backup and restore contacts, sms, call history etc prior to flashing... works like a charm...
And in conjunction with Microsoft My Phone - never lost anything so far... even able to recover my business mobile while roaming...

trying to put my nubers on the adroid version how can i do it

haircuts91 said:
trying to put my nubers on the adroid version how can i do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As with Android you need to set up a GMail account, so you can access the app market.
Set up a new exchange e-mail account on your WinMo phone - Use the details you used in the GMail account. Once it is set up, the GMail account will pick up your contacts when you sync the phone (via the phone's Activesync).
When you go into Android sync your Gmail account.

PIM Backup.

haircuts91 said:
trying to put my nubers on the adroid version how can i do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you use hotmail, just use activesync/exchange connection on your android

I got a question, when you install the wp7 on the HD2, do you also lose files from the internal memory? like the camera software or the album software or everything from internal memory?
so which backup file can i use to save all those folders and files?

I tried SPB.
Downloaded it ok.
Ran it ok.
Then at the end of the process it crashed the phone.
Booted but sense wouldn't load at all. Start worked but irratic and laggy, settings didn't open.
Tried numerous soft resets but nothing worked.
Did a hard reset and used Microsoft MyPhone to restore contacts, tasks, SMS and calendar all perfect apart from havingbto resync contacts with facebook.
I did have to download all my apps and mods again and confit email etc. A real pain but didn't loose anything valuable,
MyPhone very useful and free.

BEERSHARK said:
I tried SPB.
Downloaded it ok.
Ran it ok.
Then at the end of the process it crashed the phone.
Booted but sense wouldn't load at all. Start worked but irratic and laggy, settings didn't open.
Tried numerous soft resets but nothing worked.
Did a hard reset and used Microsoft MyPhone to restore contacts, tasks, SMS and calendar all perfect apart from havingbto resync contacts with facebook.
I did have to download all my apps and mods again and confit email etc. A real pain but didn't loose anything valuable,
MyPhone very useful and free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
I use spb backup for over a year and it works more that perfect.
Maybe you are doing something wrong (although I can not imagine what can go wrong in such an easy installation). I have used it for numerous backups and restores.No problem at all. Spb Backup is Highly Recommended.
Regards,
John

What's your FAVORITE way of saving configuration between ROMs

Was wondering how does each one keeps his settings and configuration between changing ROMS. Including keeping the Call history, SMS history etc...
I have tried Sashimi once but was overwhelmed with the settings and learning curve and decided to neglect it. I use my HD2 as a business tool and don't have hours to spend each time on configuring between ROMs.

Well, if you see your HD2 as a "business tool" imo it would be the best solution to decide for one ROM and keep it for a while...
I use a mixture of Sashimi, Outlook, MyPhone and CeRegEditor. With Sashimi I backup my mail-account-setup, with MS MyPhone I backup my SMS and WWW-bookmarks, with Outlook (of course) I "backup" my appointments and contacts, with CeRegEditor I backup my app-registration-info out of the registry that I do not always have to re-activate my apps and type in serials etc.
That does it for me. I don't like full-backup-solutions like Sprite or SPB Backup.
Cheers

spb backup for my mail,contacts and text messages.
And at last sashimi to install al my programs quickly.
And my own created cab with registery entries so I can quickly change everthing.

de Wolfe said:
Well, if you see your HD2 as a "business tool" imo it would be the best solution to decide for one ROM and keep it for a while...
I use a mixture of Sashimi, Outlook, MyPhone and CeRegEditor. With Sashimi I backup my mail-account-setup, with MS MyPhone I backup my SMS and WWW-bookmarks, with Outlook (of course) I "backup" my appointments and contacts, with CeRegEditor I backup my app-registration-info out of the registry that I do not always have to re-activate my apps and type in serials etc.
That does it for me. I don't like full-backup-solutions like Sprite or SPB Backup.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much EXACTLY what I do as well...

I dont simple, the only thing i have backed up is my memory card on the pc and contacts, calender in myphone that's it I like to change the settings differently on ROM's

Sashimi for Mail-Config, applications, registry-tweaks
MyPhone for text messages, bookmarks and tasks
Sashimi changed my life

I'm with mischgin regarding sashimi.
It alone can manage most of the things some of you do with 5 different apps
Cab autoinstall, either on internal memory or SD (you chose which goes where), registry key importing (export with total commander, sashimi will reimport back), single file copying (mirroring the root folder structure), XML provisioning for wifi and mail accounts via makisu.
This is what I use, and on top of that I only need pimbackup to restore everything else which is PIM related.
I don't use the EXE and CERT folders of SAHIMI (yet), but I can pretty much restore *everything* automatically.
The only things I don't, is because I don't knows their registry entries in order to export them (for instance, everything you change from under manila settings )

SPB backup without a doubt!

I dont use any kind of backup.
I use a rom that uses the autoinstall folder,
i created a cab of my email settings using makisu (sashimi's little brother),
and a cab of my registry tweaks(including the home quicklinks), which i update as and when i find more tweaks,
and i sync with Outlook on the pc for contacts.
Mail gets restored because my phone doesnt delete it off the server, so its still there next time you send/recieve, (unless the PC has checked them in the meantime, of course, in which case they are on the PC, and subsequently in the outlook email account on teh phone)
I dont back up txt's, i've never understood why anyone keeps them, to me its the same as recording every phone call and keeping the recordings, , why???
From the start of teh hard reset to being completely set up and synched, takes about 20 minutes. (Including teh time for the OS and apps to instal)
EDIT - oh, and lots of apps dont need to be reinstalled if you plan on using them from the sd card.
Just create a link to the executable and many of them still work.
I hard code a quicklink to things like that into my quicklinks reg cab.

I really really really really really really want a quick easy way of restoring my email settings
And as most programs don't really need installing on each ROM change I wish it was easy to tell them to store Application data on the storage card and for Cookie's tab to automatically restore icons by saving them to the Storage card (as in, the actual icon files, not just the standard backup). CorePlayer, TomTom, AiReader and GRemote are examples of programs that don't really need reinstalling.

Demon_man said:
I dont simple, the only thing i have backed up is my memory card on the pc and contacts, calender in myphone that's it I like to change the settings differently on ROM's
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ditti, currently doing same but if I found something to back up email config, facebook setting and a couple of others, it would be good

what i usually do is auto backup with NRGZ's systems export backup tool and xda uc. Also copy the progam files folder which the apps are installed on the phone and if you wantthe start menu folder in windows which has all the shortcuts etc (saves time doing it one by one).
All you have to do is just copy and past those 2 folders back in the correct places after you flash. Everythings back to how it was. Also use PIM for contacts and sms. Takes no longer than 5-10 mins to get it exactly how i want